


i will go down with this ship!

by thishasbeencary



Series: my heart will go on [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Actor!Victor, Alternate Universe - Actors, Alternate Universe - Fans & Fandom, Falling In Love, Fandom, Fanfiction, Fluff, Humor, Internet, M/M, Mistaken Identity, Mutual Pining, Social Media, actor!yuuri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2018-11-02 01:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10933731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thishasbeencary/pseuds/thishasbeencary
Summary: Yuuri and Viktor co-star in the fantasy drama History Makers, a show where their characters Mamoru and Dimitry are shipped by all the fans, which of course leads to the fact that fans also ship Yuuri and Viktor. And write fic about it. Yuuri reads RPF by only one author, therealviknik, and leaves a comment on every single one with his account, katsukiforov. Some fans pick up on the conversations and begin to ship therealviknik with katsukiforov as well.Phichit ships it all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lilyemrys](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyemrys/gifts).



> my other fic that need updates will get updates probably this weekend, stay tuned. for now, have a fandom/actor au! 
> 
> it's that time of the week again! this week's prompt for fic friday was 'fandom', and, well, here it is. mine is sort of... much longer than intended, but i'm super excited to see everything everyone does!! check out fic friday [here](https://yoificfridays.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> thanks to lily, again, for the prompt and a bunch of planning ideas, even if we planned the show more than the fic itself xD
> 
> all account names in this fic are either used with permission or fake; i'm sorry if i accidentally used your name, unless you told me i could, i didn't mean to.
> 
> also check out my blog here: [yoyoplisetsky](https://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/). send me prompts, or come talk to me, or just silently reblog things <3
> 
> this fic should also update in the next few days - it won't be too long (hopefully)

Yuuri yawned, his head on Phichit’s shoulder, trying desperately to keep his eyes open as he squinted at the laptop screen. It was four a.m., but therealviknik had just posted a new fic, and Phichit had burst into his trailer to make sure that Yuuri read it. Even though their call time on set was at six. Who needed sleep, anyway? “The WiFi is awful,” Yuuri sighed as the logo continued to spin and spin, just trying to connect. But Yuuri couldn’t read on his phone, because he was only logged on his laptop.

“ _Shh_.” Phichit put a finger over Yuuri’s lips, and Yuuri rolled his eyes. “I’m reading.” Phichit held his phone up, and Yuuri groaned. “I’m gonna break your perfect streak of first comments. What will the shippers do, Yuuri? vikiforov is dead!” Phichit exclaimed before breaking into a stream of giggles again, which Yuuri silenced by shoving him.

“You wouldn’t kill your favorite ship,” Yuuri snorted, grinning as the website finally loaded, and his eyes lit up at the title.

‘Yuuri on Ice’ by therealviknik was summarized as ‘ _Figure skater Yuuri Katsuki had an awful previous season, but he can’t retire yet. Viktor Nikiforov, figure skating legend, has come into his life as his coach. And maybe to become something more._ ’. Yuuri smiled to himself, leaning into Phichit and getting comfortable with his laptop in his lap, his friend and co-star groaning but not bothering to move.

“Did you read the author’s note?” Phichit grinned, because he hadn’t actually started, because, yeah, fine, Yuuri was right. Phichit wouldn’t destroy vikiforov, he wouldn’t dare. “Dearest katsfan, I know you loved that movie, the best movie of our lifetime, starring the one and only Phichit Chulanont, _The King and the Skater_ , so I figured I’d write this for you. The VikNik toepick fic. By the way, tell katsukiforov that I am trading my love for him for my love for you. Sorry to break fans’ hearts. Guess Yuuri should go track down Viktor on set and give him a big kiss right on the lips and then take him to his – “

“Oh my god, Phichit!” Yuuri was ignoring his friend, reading instead. The author’s note had just said, 'A/N: AU where Viktor and Yuuri are ice skaters. I like the idea. Of them. On the ice together. Ice skating. Together'. “Phichit, you have to read this, he’s _naked_.” Yuuri then promptly turned bright red at what his words sounded like.

“Yuuri Katsuki, are you reading porn about yourself!?” Phichit stared at Yuuri in horror, because therealviknik had never written smut before. He (he’d cleared it up for fans before, though refused to share a name, so he was just referred to by his username, but he had said that he was male) was always clean, rarely even implied they were having sex. It was what Yuuri loved about his fic so much, because it meant that he didn’t have to read porn about himself and his co-star he was a little bit in love with.

… A lot in love with. But he couldn’t admit to that nor could he read fanfiction about himself and Viktor having sex . So therealviknik’s fics were perfect.

“ _No_!” Yuuri screeched, covering his face with his hands. “No, just read!” He ignored Phichit’s laughter, instead favoring losing himself in the fic that he was reading.

The fic was beautiful, as always. therealviknik traced Yuuri and Viktor’s journey from coach and student to marriage, and gave Yuuri gold medals along the way, and Viktor a meaning for life. Yuuri wasn’t one to judge their motivation for Viktor, maybe he did need motivation, but he seemed pretty well off in terms of motivation and knowledge of his life as far as Yuuri could tell. As for himself…

 **katsukiforov _commented_** haha, therealviknik does it again, i’m dead!! this is so cute, vik :) i just don’t know why you actually had yuuri win the grand prix?? i mean, i guess he might be able to make it pretty far, but i don’t know if winning is something he could pull off, with his anxiety or whatever. you always put too much faith in him. other than that, it was super cute! god, i wish viktor would show up naked at my family home x)

 **katsfan _commented_** I CANNOT BELIEVE KATSUKIFOROV JUST SAID THAT FOR FUCK’S SAKE LEAVE THE NAKED VIKTOR FOR YUURI, EH? nice fic as always, viknik. i liked your representation of phichit ;) ;) ;) lol.

 **therealviknik** **_commented_** excuse me, katsukiforov, yuuri could do that and /more/. don’t underestimate his talent. and, yeah, katsfan? your praise of my phichit is high praise ;) ty both  <3333 always good to see my loyal readers <3 <3 <3 so quick, too!

Yuuri looked at the comment for a while, pondering saying something else about his anxiety, but settling for not. He didn’t need to pick a fight about himself with a fanfiction author on the internet. Phichit’s identity may be far from secret to everyone around (“katsfan” stood for _King and the Skater_ fan, the fandom Phichit was most famous for writing fanfiction in and a movie that he had starred in. He also claimed now that it stood for Katsuki fan), but Yuuri’s wasn’t. Phichit had literally gone into a convention and read his own fic for fans, laughing along with them. No one had to know that Yuuri was katsukiforov. That was humiliating.

Instead, Yuuri opened up another tab of fic, this time just for the show, not for himself and Viktor. The only RPF he read (other than Phichit’s) was what therealviknik wrote. Yuuri thought that he actually wrote close to the dynamic he and Viktor had, even if he always seemed to do Viktor better. It was… therealviknik’s fics were always very sweet. Usually, Yuuri would stick to fic about their show, but when therealviknik posted, he couldn’t help himself. He felt a little weird reading about himself, but…

Well, it could be worse.

“Yuuri, you have to get up early. It’s a big filming day tomorrow,” Phichit murmured after a few moments of silence, and Yuuri sighed, wrapping himself up against his friend’s side.

“Just sleep with me. I mean, like – “ Yuuri flushed bright red again, covering his face with his hands once more. “I – just. In my trailer. Here.” He yawned, poking Phichit’s head with his side, so his friend would lift his arm and let Yuuri cuddle in close.

“I know what you meant. Sleep. You’ve gotta get stabbed by your crush in… three hours!” Phichit said cheerfully, and Yuuri sighed.

“Phichit, one day he’s going to hear you,” Yuuri muttered tiredly. “And I don’t want to be stabbed. I’d rather…” Yuuri trailed off, but didn’t fall asleep fast enough to hear Phichit speak again.

“You’d rather kiss him? Well, Yuuri, you’re on TV! Good luck ever getting that to happen.” Phichit smiled down at him.

“We’re supposed to be soulmates, or whatever, aren’t we? They’ll make us kiss. They better.” Yuuri was exhausted, which was obvious in his words, and he heard Phichit laughing.

“I guess we’ll see. I’m sure Viktor wouldn’t mind it either. Oh, oh! Imagine this! Fic where…” Yuuri chose to tune his friend out, deciding instead to actually get some sleep like Phichit had suggested. Even if he was awoken only two hours later by Phichit whispering that hair and makeup needed him.

Viktor, Yuuri, and Phichit co-starred in a show called _History Makers_ , where Yuuri and Viktor played soulmates (not that anyone watching was supposed to know yet). Phichit and Yuuri were immortals, and, at this point, Viktor was playing a villain. Reincarnation was the main theme of the show, in that Viktor’s character was set to continuously die and be reincarnated for Yuuri’s character to fall in love with again and again. Or to just barely miss him.

And, well, there was quite a bit that the fans didn’t know.

What they did know was that Dimitry, Viktor’s character, was the villain of the season, and was plotting Yuuri’s character’s, Mamoru’s, death. Even with this, Viktor and Yuuri’s characters were shipped by basically every fan of the show, probably because they were ‘canon’ and ‘soulmates’. Unfortunately, at the moment, they were being shipped, but they weren’t canon, which meant that the fans had them under fire for queerbaiting. Yuuri wasn’t positive where they were going to take the end of the season yet, but he was pretty sure that was going to be resolved by the end.

They were filming the mid-season finale today, the one where Dimitry was going to physically attack Mamoru. And stab him.

Yuuri headed to hair and makeup looking like hell warmed over, and he knew that, enough to wince in apology when Georgi looked at him in shock, just sighing and leading him to sit down. Yuuri sat silently, drifting off a little as Georgi took care of his makeup, and he walked onto set next, where Viktor already was, leaning against a wall and talking to Yakov in rapid fire Russian. Because this show for some reason was full of Russians.

Phichit rushed over to Yuuri with a wide grin on his face, throwing his arms around his waist and walking with him. “Ready to get stabbed, Yuuri?” He laughed, and Viktor looked up at their voices and waved happily.

“Yuuri! Phichit!” He called them over, summoning them with a hand gesture as well. Yuuri shoved Phichit before walking with him over to Viktor, where they chatted about their lines and what was going to happen that day.

By the end of the day, Yuuri was exhausted, but they still hadn’t filmed the most important scene. He stood where he was supposed to, his back turned to Viktor, instead walking along the path set for them, breathing carefully, counting down in his head. Viktor came right on his cue, of course he did, and Yuuri felt the fake blade against his back as he collapsed, looking up at Viktor.

“Dimitry!” He yelled his line, clutching onto Viktor’s sleeve as he fell, and Viktor just smirked down at him, as he was supposed to, shaking him off and wiping the ‘blood’ onto his sleeve that Yuuri had been holding onto, throwing it down toward him after he had. Yuuri had to just lay on the ground in the pool of fake blood until Phichit came up. And then the scene was over, and they were changing to do it again.

And again.

And again.

On the fifth take, Yuuri fell and brought Viktor down with him on accident, pulling his arm too hard as he actually lost his balance. Viktor toppled on top of him, and their eyes met in shocked surprise, Yuuri unable to do anything other than clutch at Viktor’s sleeve and stare at the man on top of him, his breathing picking up. Viktor luckily had the sense to get off of him and apologize, helping him up, and Yuuri only paid attention to the buzzing in his ears and the lost sensation of Viktor on top of him.

God, he was so lost.

They filmed the scene a few more times, and by the time they were done, Yuuri was exhausted, and just wanted to go back to his trailer and curl up and sleep through the airing of the next episode, but he knew better.

“Yuuri, Phichit! Are you coming to my trailer to watch the episode we’re airing tonight? I’ve already invited Yakov and Yurio, but they can’t make it,” Viktor said, smiling at them along with his words, and how was Yuuri supposed to say no?

Which was how a picture of him sleeping on Phichit’s shoulder while their show played on in the background ended up on Viktor’s Twitter.

 **@v-nikiforov:** _tonight’s episode of @HistoryMakersTV must be riveting. xD Yuuri had a long day at work :) he deserves the nap. @y-katsuki @phichit+chu_ [img attached: Yuuri asleep on Phichit’s shoulder, Viktor taking a selfie in front of them while the most recent episode of History Makers that they were _supposed_ to be Live-Tweeting played in the background]

Yuuri apologized profusely as he was leaving Viktor’s trailer, walking back to his in exhaustion, fully prepared to go to sleep when he saw the notification on his phone, and his eyes widened in excitement. therealviknik had posted a new fic. Not that Yuuri really needed that today, after all that had happened, but, well… he’d never refuse to read therealviknik’s fic the second they came out.

therealviknik posted Our Habit of Dreaming. Yuuri grabbed his laptop and immediately clicked the link, wrapped up tight in his blanket still. He hadn’t checked Twitter yet, because he knew it would be full of fans (and Viktor) waiting for him to respond, so instead he tucked himself up in the corner of his bed and opened up the email to read the summary.

 _After filming Episode One of_ History Makers, _Viktor and Yuuri want to get to know each other better. Viktor invites Yuuri out to lunch, which of course he wouldn’t refuse. Other than a small interruption from Yuri Plisetsky, their date goes swimmingly. Wait – it’s a date!? Maybe Viktor should have explained that to Yuuri…_

‘A/N: Hey, I know this is a throwback, but now’s as good a time as ever! Wow, the show is sure picking up, isn’t it!!!? I’m so excited to see where they go but terrified for poor Mamoru, something gives me the feeling something bad is going to happen to him. x( But, well, maybe it will all work out! For them and for Viktuuri. I guess we can dream a lot of things <3‘

Yuuri smiled at the fic, opening it up. It was a quick read, and Yuuri smiled as he finished, sighing to himself. Even if therealviknik obviously couldn’t mean much by the title, it struck Yuuri on a hard level. He _knew_ that this was all a dream for him, but he didn’t care.                      

 **katsukiforov _commented_ ** haha, i bet yuuri wishes viktor would ask him on a date, even if he didn’t realize at first. hopefully that doesn’t really happen xO cute as always, viknik. and check out my blog, i’m about to post something you’ll probably want to read. fitting for this fic, we must have been on the same wavelength again xD

 **ykatsvnik _commented_** wo W that was adorable i CANNOT believe you write the best viktuuri in the fandom SERIOUSLY teach us all your ways, viknik (also, we see you there, katsukiforov ;))

Yuuri left his comment on therealviknik’s fic before pulling up tumblr, where he already had the post written up: ‘Viktuuri in Episode 1 – Behind the Scenes Images?’. Since he’d started on the show, and realized that people shipped him and Viktor, Yuuri had opened up a blog where he wrote (actually very popular) meta about the two of them and their characters.

The Dimoru (the chosen ship name for his and Viktor’s characters) prompts and meta had gained more attention, but Yuuri struggled to write that more, because he didn’t want to give himself away by accidentally spoiling the show. As for the meta between himself and Viktor… Well, he felt the same way he did writing it as he did reading therealviknik’s fic, but he did it, just like he read the fic.

 Production had released a series of images of himself and Viktor from episode one. It was far from the first out of character promotional material, but they released a _lot_ of pictures. Yuuri noticed in them that he was staring at Viktor with a lovesick expression, and, while absolutely humiliated, he did what he did best.

He wrote about it. He’d cracked open tumblr and written an entire post analyzing his facial expressions toward Viktor, complete with all of the pictures that production had released. Long, and detailed, just how his fans liked it. He had people who were fans of him, who wrote as a fan of him. Which was incredibly confusing, he was pretty sure he didn’t even follow his own logic with that one.

As for Viktor in the pictures? He wasn’t unfriendly toward Yuuri, but… well, Yuuri didn’t want to put emotions on Viktor that weren’t there, not in his own writing. So he ended his long, detailed report with a quick comment about Viktor, only saying, “ _Viktor’s face is much harder to read, I don’t know. It might just be one sided with Yuuri…”_

Reviews immediately rolled in.

 **katsfan** reblogged your post and added:

                _EXCUSE ME, KATSUKI, DID YOU JUST IGNORE THE PHICHIT PICTURES!? as for your viktuuri review, you’re an idiot. yuuri is so in love with viktor, there’s no maybe about it. oh, and viktor definitely loves him back. they probably want to squish their faces together, mutually. maybe phichit should help them ;) i’ll be sure to tell yuuri ;) ;) ;)_

 **sinkingorswimming** replied to your post “Viktuuri in Episode 1 – Behind the Scen…”

_This is adorable, oh my god! The focus on Yuuri’s faces! <3 That boy is so in love. Not to mention that pic Viktor posted during the episode tonight!!!!_

**yoyoplisetsky** replied to your post “Viktuuri in Episode 1 – Behind the Scen…”

                _why the focus on yuuri and only one line about viktor?_

 **katsukiyuuristrophyhusband** replied to your post “Viktuuri In episode 1 – Behind the Scen…”

                _ahh, katsuki, i love this!! so adorable a+++ always looking forward to more from you!!! <3_

 **therealviknik** reblogged your post and added:

                _This is very sweet meta about Yuuri, but I have to disagree about what you say about Viktor! I think that Viktor is just as in love with Yuuri as Yuuri is with Viktor! Look at his face, too! Have we ever seen Nikiforov look like that? Back in his old shows, he’d smile and he got along with his coworkers, but it was never like that. He treated Plisetsky as a brother, still does on_ History Makers _._

 _Christophe Giacometti was the closest we’ve seen Viktor to this, and that was something completely different from the rest of his friends, wasn’t it? Like who_ doesn’t _think that Chris and Viktor haven’t made out a few times? ;) That’s closer to the face he’s making at Yuuri, but it’s different. With Chris, it’s like… mischievous friendship, or something. With Yuuri it looks like love._

_I mean, I’m no Viktor expert, but it’s certainly different. Katsuki Yuuri better watch out – if I see what I think I see, Viktor Nikiforov has eyes for him and only him <3_

_But great meta as always, Katsuki <3 Ty for telling me you wrote it!! _

Yuuri flushed red at therealviknik’s words on tumblr, closing out of the app instead of responding, staring at his computer and _finally_ opening up Twitter, where he was apparently logged onto his katsukiforov account. Even though he should make an announcement about how good the episode was like he saw Viktor had on his business Twitter, Yuuri scrolled for a few seconds before freezing, looking at the poll one of the fan accounts had posted.

**@viktuuriforov:** _What do you ship most?? I know it’s a hard choice! :)_

_Viktuuri (Viktor/Yuuri)_

_Dimoru (Dimitry/Mamoru)_

_vikiforov (therealviknik/katsukiforov)_

People… shipped him and therealviknik.

 _And_ him and Viktor.

 _And_ his character with Viktor’s.

 _Oh_.

That seemed… complicated.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris comes on set for the next episode, and Yuuri doesn't know if he's ever been more embarrassed while filming something. Oh? You wanted to know about Viktuuri/katsukiforov? Things get a little more twisted. Yuuri has a ""date"" with Viktor, and therealviknik has one too?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look, i'm finally updating :) thank you so much for your love and support on this fic, it's great, ahh! i'm so glad everyone enjoys my mess as much as i do
> 
> any urls in this chapter have given me permission to use them for the fic from [this post](https://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/post/161550677047/hey-im-working-on-the-next-chapter-of-my-im). it's the post i'll be using for the rest of the fic, so if you want your url to potentially be featured, just like it, or send my blog a message, reply to it, respond to it, whatever you want <3 if you liked it and i didn't use you - don't worry. like i said, that's the post for the rest of the fic <3
> 
> check out my blog!! send me prompts or talk to me or reblog things, whatever you want :) [yoyoplisetsky](https://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/)

Viktor wasn’t yet on set when Yuuri came on the next day, which made sense, because they had much different filming schedules that day. It was probably good, because it gave Yuuri time to push out everything that he’d talked about on tumblr last night before he started to interact with the actual person that he’d been talking about.

God, that was sort of awful, wasn’t it? He was writing about how it looked like he was so in love with one of his close friends. And, sure, it was true, he was absolutely enamored with Viktor Nikiforov, but… he also creepily posted about his friend and read fanfiction where they were in love.

But… Well… Viktor didn’t know. And Yuuri mostly just read RPF from Vik, so it was fine, right?

Rather than get caught up in that (anxious) train of thought, he had to focus on why he was on set – he was filming with Chris today. After his character’s tragic stabbing and “death” last episode, a little more of his backstory was revealed in the fact that he came back to life, with an unreasonable lack of vengeance against Viktor’s character.

In fact, the scene that they were filming today was Mamoru begging Baz, played by none other than Christophe Giacometti, to give him more information about Dimitry. Begging him in… questionable ways.

Chris grinned at him as Yuuri stepped onto their set, and Yuuri raised his eyebrows. “It’s a mess? I thought Baz was supposed to be a god or something?” He questioned, sitting down and tying up his shoes again.

“Yuuri! Can a god not live in a disaster? He’s _living_ , Yuuri. So we decided this was the right environment for him,” As Chris finished speaking, he gestured to the messy room they’d set up as Baz’s shack. Yuuri did have to admit, it fit the theme of the scene.

“And by ‘we’, you mean…”

“Mari, mostly. But, Yuuri, come on, you’ve gotta admit, it’s pretty good!” Chris winked at him and Yuuri laughed, nodding his head.

“Fine, fine. Artistic genius. I give in.”

“Knew you would!” As Chris walked past, he brushed against Yuuri, but that wasn’t surprising at all, because Chris was always much more tactile than he had to be. Yuuri pulled out his phone, answering some of his texts and emails not related to his life as katsukiforov.

“You ready?” Chris asked after a few more moments, from behind a camera. Right, because Chris was also here to direct this episode.

“I… It’s now or never?” Yuuri shrugged, and Chris laughed, nodding his head.

Most of the scene was fine, but… well, Mamoru was _begging_ for information.

“You know it’s not free, Mamoru,” Chris delivered his line easily, leaning back on the chair there, and Yuuri stepped forward, grabbing onto Chris’s shirt.

“I know,” He growled, pulling Chris in for a kiss and awkwardly knocking their teeth together in a painful way, pulling away and holding onto his mouth, wincing. “Shit, Chris, I’m sorry, I – “

And Chris started laughing, so Yuuri buried his face in his hands as Chris walked over to the cameras to look at the shot. “We’re gonna need to do that again, Yuuri. Look, if you wanted to kiss me more than once, you could just ask.” Chris winked and Yuuri looked up at him with red cheeks.

“No, no, let’s just – do it again.” Yuuri gestured vaguely to the set with his words, and Chris laughed, walking back over to lounge on the chair again.

In take two, Yuuri tripped over some of the cushions they had laid out over Baz’s ‘house’ and ended up falling directly beside Chris, and just not removing his face from the pillows. This scene was never going to end. He was just endlessly going to have to kiss Christophe Giacometti.

At least, until they fired him.

Eternally kissing Chris meant he couldn’t kiss Viktor.

For god’s sake, Yuuri, now was not the time.

Take three had a choked off noise from Viktor, who had just walked in from the scene that he’d been running lines for. Viktor walked in right as Yuuri climbed onto Chris, finally a successful shot, his hands immediately sliding beneath his shirt, as he was supposed to, and Chris’s hands –

Well, the point was, Yuuri looked up from the shot to Viktor standing in a puddle of coffee, just looking at the two of them. “Sorry!” He exclaimed, laughing. “Continue, continue. I’ll clean this up.”

Take four seemed fine to Yuuri, but Chris claimed that he’d delivered his line lamely and they did it again.

During take five, Phichit lasted until Yuuri shoved Chris onto the bed before he broke out laughing, and Yuuri turned back at him with an outright murderous look in his eyes. Well, that was… probably going to be in the bloopers.

Take six of the kiss, Chris finally decided to have mercy on Yuuri, no complaints or noises from anyone else as Yuuri pushed him back onto the bed, though they cut off the scene then, because they needed different camera angles for what came next. Yuuri fell back against the bed in relief as he let Chris go figure out the camera stuff, closing his eyes and waiting for him to come back.

The next scene, somehow, was even worse than the kiss itself.

It was supposed to reveal Mamoru’s canon bisexuality, to reveal to the people watching that there was a chance of him and Dimitry getting together (because the end game for the show was, in fact, that he and Dimitry got together). Which meant that Yuuri had to film a sex scene with none other than Christophe Giacometti.

They had a good first take of the scene, but apparently some of the dialogue had been stilted (probably because Yuuri had never filmed a sex scene before, and they were Chris’s specialty, and it was like Chris was purposely trying to screw him up), so they had to film it again.

Yuuri had his lips on Chris’s, shifting his body as he was commanded, glad that most of this scene would have a soundtrack overlaid so that they wouldn’t be able to hear the awkward instructions that they were getting, beyond the parts with dialogue.

What was even worse was that they insisted that Yuuri and Chris at least make some noise, for when they had to mix that with the overlay.

At least Mamoru was supposed to be completely uninterested in the sex beyond what he was getting from it, so Yuuri was allowed to look a little confused and uncomfortable. Mamoru was supposed to be completely in love with Dimitry, completely soulmates, even after he’d been killed an episode ago.

Halfway through the scene, there was a loud crashing noise, and Yuuri looked up to see Viktor standing there with his cheeks bright red, hands held up in that eternal I’m-pretending-to-be-innocent-even-though-I’m-not stance. There was a table on the floor beside him, the papers that had been sitting on it scattered everywhere. “Need to watch where I’m going, apparently, sorry!” Viktor exclaimed, sitting down to pick up the papers.

“Viktor?” Chris called, not moving from where he was positioned underneath Yuuri, and Yuuri couldn’t look down at him outside of the scene, because he knew he’d lose all of what he’d built up for this.

“Yes?” Viktor looked thoroughly reprimanded just from Chris talking to him, and Yuuri raised his eyebrows.

“Why don’t you and Yuri and Yakov go run lines for your scene?” Chris suggested.

Viktor crossed his arms petulantly before nodding his head. “We already ran our lines.”

“Then once you have them memorized, just take an early day. You’ve earned it,” Celestino responded from where he was stationed behind the cameras, eyeing Viktor, clearly on the same page as Chris. Whatever page that was.

Viktor pouted at the two of them for another moment before nodding. “Fine. Good luck filming!” He walked out of the room and Yuuri breathed out again, looking down at Chris, who smirked.

“Ready to go again?” He winked, and Yuuri was pretty sure that he was going to die.

Luckily, the scene didn’t take that much longer, and Yuuri was back in his trailer before he knew it, exhaustedly flopping onto his couch for the last hour that he had left before he and Phichit were supposed to go to dinner together.

After dinner, Yuuri came back alone, curling up alone in his bed and grabbing his phone, which almost immediately lit up with a new message. From therealviknik. Who had posted something new.

It was called “A Night of Passion”, and Yuuri’s breath left him in shock, because there was only one thing that could imply. He hesitantly clicked on the link and without breathing, looked at the summary:

_“Look at me,” Yuuri whined, putting his arms around Viktor’s neck. And Viktor was, he was looking only at Yuuri, but it didn’t seem enough. Yuuri pulled him in for a deep kiss. “Look only at me,” He demanded, and how was Viktor supposed to deny him?_

therealviknik had written smut about himself and Viktor, and Yuuri was going to read it. He breathed out, curling up with his phone. “trying something new!!!” was the entirety of therealviknik’s author note, and Yuuri couldn’t believe his eyes as he read on.

 **katsukiforov _commented_ ** holy shit, vik??????? i have no words. i just. holy shit.

 **cuttlemefishwrites _commented_** well, this is a new one. wow, viknik. blowing us all away once again. in a whole new way???

 **katsfan _commented_** sounds like katsukiforov is feeling pretty good right now ;) think yuuri’s really like that?

 **therealviknik _commented_** i’d hope so. and ahaha, i hope katsuki gets some sleep xD i just… was inspired?

Yuuri closed out of the fic after he’d read Vik’s comment back, curling up in his bed. Right. He was supposed to sleep now.

He fell asleep, but only a few hours later woke up, because he had to be on set soon.

 “Sleep well, Yuuri?” Phichit teased, shoving him slightly and Yuuri’s cheeks lit up red, burying his face in his hands.

“Phichit, it’s not funny,” Yuuri mumbled, walking ahead of him, trying to keep his attention just on where he was going. He had to film… something today. He couldn’t even remember the scene he was filming today, because he had been so distracted by last night.

“Oh, so you didn’t? Yuuri, what could have possibly distracted you, I mean, _clearly_ , you should have slept great but – “ Phichit was laughing so hard Yuuri was surprised that he was able to walk in a straight line at the moment.

“Phichit,” Yuuri hissed, but it was too late.

“You didn’t sleep well?” Viktor asked, coming up behind them, and Yuuri spun around to look at him.

“I… no! I slept just fine. I…” Yuuri groaned, trying to think of a good enough excuse. “I was just up late. Reading.”

“What were you reading?” Viktor questioned, stepping up forward so that he was waking in line with them, and Yuuri felt like his heart was going to stop, because he definitely couldn’t say, _“Fanfiction about us”_ , and definitely not, _“Explicit fanfiction about us by a writer online I have a tiny crush on but not as big as my crushing crush on you”._

Instead, he lamely responded, “Just some stuff a friend writes. He, uh, was trying something different last night, and… So I was… up… reading that. And then reading some of his other stuff.”

“Oh! Is he any good? I’m sure he is, if you were up all night reading his writing, I’d love to read it sometime if – “

“Ahh, no!” Yuuri shouted, before he realized what he’d done and he covered his face with his hands and a loud groan. “I just mean, uh, he writes… in Japanese? So. You probably couldn’t read it. Since… you know, you, uh, don’t know that much Japanese?”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Viktor mused, before smiling again. “Would you like to come over tonight? I was planning on cooking for myself and Yurio, but apparently he has plans with his grandfather, so I’ve bought too many ingredients for just myself, and would love to have dinner with you.” Yuuri definitely imagined the hesitation before Viktor added, “You and Phichit, of course.”

“I’ve got plans,” Phichit immediately said, smiling apologetically at Viktor, and Yuuri stared at him, because their plans had been to watch movies together until they fell asleep, since Yuuri had a rare off day the next day. They could definitely go to Viktor’s instead of – “But I know Yuuri doesn’t! He’d probably love to have dinner with you!”

Yuuri’s brain short-circuited. “I – uh – “ He stared at Phichit, who grinned at him, before waving.

“I’ve gotta head off to hair and makeup! See you guys later!” He waved before dashing off, even though he wasn’t needed in there for another half hour, which left Viktor and Yuuri completely alone.

“Um… I… I mean, I don’t have plans, I guess.” Since Phichit seemed to have cancelled on him, it seemed that Yuuri would be completely alone that night. And now, alone with Viktor? Oh, shit. Oh shit. Fuck. This was crazy. “So I can come over?”

“Perfect! I was planning on making some food my mother taught me how in Russia, but if you don’t want me to, we can have something else, I can also make some – “

Yuuri laughed, cutting Viktor off. “Russian food sounds great, I’ll see you then, Viktor! Thank you, again. I’m sorry Phichit couldn’t make it.”

In Yuuri’s wildest daydream, he imagined Viktor whispered, “I’m not,” as he walked away.

His phone dinged just then, a notification that therealviknik had posted on his blog (not that Yuuri stalked Vik’s blog for updates, but… he might have post notifications on).

 **therealviknik** : _do you ever just see a boy and wish you could tell him literally everything about your life and wrap him up in your arms and keep him forever? well, i did, and i have dinner plans with him tonight <3 <3 <3 wish me luck!!!!!_

Vik had a date tonight? Yuuri read the post again and smiled slightly to himself, wishing that he felt happier for him, but it was… kind of confusing, really. Instead, opened it up to reblog the post, adding, _good luck :) got my own plans tonight – though i have the feeling that yours might go better than mine :(_

He continued to scroll through his dash, but it was one of those loops, where all of his friends followed each other. And, you know, therealviknik reblogged back from everyone who reblogged his post.

 **shemakesmeforget:** _omg good luck i bet you can’t wait!!,_ to which Vik replied, _i really can’t. it’s not even a date and i’m still so excited :))))._

 **diabolicalvitaly:** _still no hope of selfies, even from your ‘not date’ night?,_ which Vik answered, _haha i wish!! but i really can’t show my face online, i’m sorry. X(_

And so on, over and over again, more people replying to Vik’s post, and him answering them back. He hadn’t answered Yuuri yet, but Yuuri had the feeling that was because he was getting ready for his not-date. Like Yuuri was.

Yuuri panicked when he was getting ready to go see Viktor, because he didn’t know what to wear. It wasn’t a date, but he wasn’t about to show up to Viktor’s house in sweatpants or something. For some reason, the perfect person to ask about this was apparently Vik.

 **katsukiforov:** what are you wearing to your not-a-date tonight? i’m panicking about meeting up with this friend because i can’t figure out what the dress code would be x(

 **therealviknik:** awh, katsuki, you’re asking me for dating advice? <3 <3 <3

 **katsukiforov:** vik, please!!! it’s not a date (i wish)

 **therealviknik:** well, i don’t know what you look like (because you won’t show me :(, but i guess i’m not one to judge, since i won’t send you pictures either :’(), but if it’s REALLY not a date, just jeans and a decent shirt are okay, right? so you can be like “yeah, we look like friends, but i’d also love it if you made out with me a little bit”? you’re probably a heartbreaker, katsuki x)

 **katsukiforov:** i doubt you’d say that if you saw me, haha. but thanks, vik. good luck on your not-a-date tonight :)

 **therealviknik:** you too, katsuki!! and, hey, if they’re both awful, we’ve always got each other, right? :)

 **katsukiforov:** always such a romantic, vik xD

 **therealviknik:** also, i refuse to write another fic until you update your name meta. i asked you that dimoru thing forever ago, don’t you love me? :((((((((((

 **katsukiforov:** you wouldn’t let down your loyal fans like that, would you? :))))

 **therealviknik:** the only fan that matters is you.  <3

Yuuri wished he had more time, but a glance at his watch told him that he was going to be late for dinner with Viktor, so he sighed, pulling on his shoes.

 **katsukiforov:** yeah, whatever, you sap. i’ll update name meta just as soon as you actually write that epilogue for yuuri on ice you keep refusing to write. also, i’ve gotta run, i’m gonna be late.

 **therealviknik:** awhh, okay <3 i’ve gotta go soon, anyway. talk to you later, katsuki!!

Before he was able to put his phone away, he noticed that Vik had finally reblogged his answer: _katsuki, if you’re anything in life like you are online, you’re going to slay your not-date. good luck to him. and some luck for me, i hope? <3 we’ve always got each other if these don’t work out ;)_

Yuuri smiled to himself, shoving his phone onto a table and rushing to get dressed, making the last minute decision to slick back his hair. He sat in front of his mirror, carefully pulling his hair back before grinning to himself. Vik was right, completely and totally right. Yuuri would absolutely love to make out with Viktor a little bit.

He threw on his jacket anyway, putting his phone and keys into his pocket before rushing out the door, heading over to Viktor’s. He knocked, and Viktor immediately opened and –

The breath was knocked out of Yuuri’s chest. Viktor was _not at all_ dressed like this was just two friends hanging out for dinner. That was probably just how Viktor was, but he was wearing a pink button down shirt and tight black pants that Yuuri didn’t know if he could look at much longer. “I – Viktor. Sorry I’m late, I got… distracted, at home, I was on the phone, uh…” Yuuri felt like he could die on the spot.

“It’s no problem! The food took a little longer than expected, so you’re right on time, come on in!” Viktor said excitedly, opening the door wider, and Yuuri walked in.

Yuuri had been to Viktor’s apartment before, so this was nothing new. He walked over to Viktor’s table, where the food was set, and Viktor grinned, loading it onto both of their plates as he started to tell story after story about how his mother had taught him how to make all of this but he so rarely got to in America.

Yuuri wished that he wasn’t zoning out every five seconds to stare at how good Viktor looked. He really was interested in the stories and wanted to know everything that Viktor had to tell.

After they’d finished eating, Viktor stood up and smiled at Yuuri, offering him a hand. “Want to watch a movie?”

Yuuri was exhausted, but he wasn’t about to say no to his crush inviting him to watch a movie with him. “Sure. Got one in mind?” He asked, forcing himself to let go of Viktor’s hand and walk over to the couch, calling out for Makkachin, who immediately bounded up and laid across his lap.

Viktor turned on a movie, and Yuuri barely even processed what it was, because Viktor then sat down right beside him, close enough that his arm was _technically_ around him, because there was nowhere else to put it, and the other hand was stroking Makkachin’s fur peacefully.

Yuuri was going to die tonight, and he was going to die happily.

 **@v-nikiforov:** why does this keep happening :’( we were watching a movie!!! [img attached: yuuri half-asleep on viktor’s couch with makkachin curled up on his lap, taken from an angle that makes to clear that viktor was sitting _right_ beside him]

 **@pirozhkiprince:** @v-nikiforov why does he keep sleeping over at your apartment? ;) <3

 **@queenofaburiedkingdom:** @v-nikiforov @yoyoplisetsky when viktuuri is real (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

 **@yoyoplisetsky:** @queenofaburiedkingdom *softly* i’m dying.

 **@katsukiforov:** @therealviknik fic me, vik, fic me. please.

 **@therealviknik:** @katsukiforov i would like nothing more than to fic you <333333

 **@katsukiyuuristrophyhusband:** … is no one going to say it? #vikiforov

 **@katsukiyuuristrophyhusband:** … no one? alright. it’s on me. i have to save this poor fandom and our ship.

 **@katsukiyuuristrophyhusband:** @katsukiforov @therealviknik fic him or fuck him ;) #vikiforov

 **@katsfan:** @katsukiyuuristrophyhusband YOU AND YOUR URL ARE THE CONTENT THIS FANDOM DESERVES #vikiforov

 **@katsfan:** also, yeah ;) ;) ;) fic him, vik ;) ;) @katsukiforov @therealviknik

Yuuri read the tweets and blushed red, but liked Viktor’s off of his main account (his _only_ account, as far as Viktor is concerned). He then opened up tumblr and stared in shock when he realized that _Vik_ had posted meta about Viktor’s tweet. His mouth fell open as he read the first lines.

 _Okay, but is no one talking about the fact that Yuuri is_ clearly _dressed like he’s on a date? Like, tell me that hair and that outfit doesn’t say ‘fuck me’. Tell me Viktor wasn’t internally crying all night, wanting to tangle his fingers into that hair. No wonder Viktor took a picture, he clearly wanted to cherish that for the rest of his life. Who wouldn’t? Katsuki Yuuri is fucking gorgeous. If he and Viktor_ do _date, you know, one day, eventually, hopefully in the not-too-distant-future, Viktor Nikiforov is one lucky guy._

Yuuri couldn’t help but reblog Vik’s post and immediately add: _I hope Viktor posts what he was wearing. To confirm or deny all of our theories, I guess? It looks like Yuuri was really trying hard to impress him, so I wonder what Viktor was thinking?_

He set his phone down to change his clothes, pulling himself into his bed and burying himself in his blankets, yawning softly. And then his phone dinged, and Yuuri blinked in surprise, grabbing it nonetheless. Vik had already posted something else? Usually they went to bed around the same time.

But… oh, no, buried among other comments, there it was:

 **therealviknik** reblogged your post and added:

                _Viktor was probably thinking that he didn’t know how he even got that lucky, because, holy shit. And check his Twitter when you get up, Katsuki!!! He just posted a picture, and my incredibly unofficial opinion says that Viktor completely and totally wanted that to be a date with Yuuri because_ wow _, does that look like a date outfit or what?_

Viktor tweeted multiple times a day, so his tweet about Yuuri was already long-buried, but nonetheless, Yuuri’s eyes widened and he opened up Twitter, where Viktor had posted a picture of himself, still wearing what he’d worn when Yuuri was over, cuddling Makkachin.

 **@v-nikiforov:** I’ve got the most beautiful girl in the world in my lap. Now where’s my most beautiful boy? :(((((((((

Yuuri stared at the tweet for a long time, before daring to click into the replies, knowing that they were thinking the exact same thing that he was thinking. He only needed to read one to confirm his suspicions.

 **@grassepi:** @v-nikiforov HOLY SHIT DO YOU THINK HE MEANS YUURI!? #viktuuri #ViktuuriIsReal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments/kudos/bookmarks are always appreciated <3 thank you again!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuuri is pretty sure that Viktor is getting a new dog, angsts over the fact that he runs a fanblog for himself, and does his first scene with Yuri Plisetsky. therealviknik angsts because he wants to kiss his One True Love, his not-boyfriend. Yuuri wants to kiss his not-boyfriend, too. His not-boyfriend is Viktor Nikiforov.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy birthday to the katsukiforov to my therealviknik, [lily](http://queenofaburiedkingdom.tumblr.com/)!!! you write this fic basically as much as i do since 99% of the material comes from our conversations, so have an update for your birthday <33  
> there's a one-shot coming later, but it might be tomorrow, bc i need to take an exam real quick bc i forgot to take it over break and it's due tonight  
> but there's another part of your birthday surprise. in this verse.
> 
> for everyone else -  
> thank you so much for all of the love and support on this fic, it blows me away!!! and, yay, look!! cary updated!! i'm going into finals, so i'm going to be super busy, so this probably won't get another update for about a month again, but this is definitely a step in the right direction!! i hope you enjoy <3  
> again, all the urls in this chapter come from [this post](https://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/post/161550677047/hey-im-working-on-the-next-chapter-of-my-im), and i'll continue to use that post for the rest of this fic, and the side stories.
> 
> talking about side stories - i'm about to make this fic into a series because lily keeps requesting side stories (because i tell her she can because i love this verse), and i'm finally the posting the first long one for her birthday today (or tomorrow, depending on how long my exam takes). there are a few short ones/headcanons [here on my blog](https://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/tagged/i%20will%20go%20down%20with%20this%20ship!), but longer stories will be added into the verse on ao3 ^-^ feel free to request any side stories you want to see!!

Yuuri woke up the next morning with messages from Vik, but he got dressed before he dared to look at them. It might just be him sending a link to the fic but… who knows what else Viktor might have done overnight that would spur Vik to want to talk to him.

Well, he sort of knew. Viktor had posted _that selfie_. Yuuri still didn’t know what had gotten into his head when he posted it, because, well… Viktor didn’t want to date him, did he? And if he did, would he declare that over _Twitter!?_ It seemed illogical, but… it was Viktor. Viktor had done a lot of silly and amazing things in the years since he’d become famous.

But… _no_. Viktor wouldn’t have done that. He had to mean something else – maybe it was a hint. Makkachin was getting old, maybe he was getting a new dog. When Yuuri had talked to him about Vicchan and shown him pictures, he’d talked about how he wanted his next dog to be smaller.

That was probably it. Viktor was hinting at getting a new dog. Maybe he’d tell Yuuri about him later today. Considering the fact that the show was pretty clearly on pace to be renewed, they were going to be spending a lot of time together, and Yuuri was sure that Viktor would let him hang out with the dog, and go on walks with them.

Maybe if Viktor got a new dog, Yuuri would too. He did miss Vicchan, and hated that Makkachin was the only dog that he had contact with in the past few years. Phichit’s hamsters hardly counted for animal companionship. Not that he would mention that to Phichit.

Finally, he opened Vik’s messages, and was relieved to find that they weren’t about Viktor’s tweet at all.

Yuuri still didn’t dare act like he had seen the Tweet, just in case. He could just… pretend it didn’t exist until Viktor mentioned his new dog to him.

For now, his focus was on Vik.

**therealviknik:** hey, i forgot to ask with all of the viktuuri stuff that went down last night, but how did your not-a-date go??

**therealviknik:** mine sucked.

**therealviknik:** not because it was bad, i just really wish i was dating him and i don’t know if he can tell, because i tried to be obvious but he just… acted like normal :(

**katsukiforov:** oh, vik, that sucks :( mine was… kind of the same, i guess.

**katsukiforov:** i don’t know. i came back more confused than before because i think he likes me, and all my friends think he likes me but i just… i don’t know. he’s so out of my league, vik, he’s gorgeous.

**therealviknik:** how gorgeous??? kat, i’ve never seen you, but i’m sure that not being attractive is not one of your worries.

**katsukiforov:** like…. imagine viktor nikiforov. Last Night viktor nikiforov, dressed up like he was on a date. that’s how amazing my date looked last night.

**therealviknik:** well, if you took my advice for clothes, you dressed something like yuuri, right???

**katsukiforov:** something like him, yeah…

**therealviknik:** then your not-date was probably breathless the entire night, kat. mine was the most handsome man i’d ever met and i still ended the night alone with my dog :’((( i love my dog but i would much prefer he stayed the night, you know???

“Yuuri!” Viktor’s voice broke his focus, and he immediately closed the app, pulling up Instagram ( _Please be his professional Instagram. Please don’t be the katsukiforov Instagram.)_ and pretending to casually scroll through it, his heart pounding. If Viktor hadn’t announced himself, what if he looked over Yuuri’s shoulder, and saw what he was doing? Saw him talking to fan blogs about the two of them. Would Viktor know they existed? What would he say? God, the rest of their life working together would be _so awkward_.

It didn’t matter. Yuuri had hidden the proof of what he was doing, Viktor would never know. He looked up at Viktor, who grinned happily at him. Yuuri couldn’t help but smile back. “Hey, Viktor.”

“Good morning! We’re needed on set soon, for the scene with Yuri. Phichit and Yuuko are filming their stuff first, but they want us to run lines while they’re at it, since Yuri has to go to his lessons in…” Viktor glanced down at his watch. “Four hours. They want to get as much of this scene done before he has to go to school.”

“Okay.” Yuuri grabbed his phone, shoving it into his pocket and grabbing his script. “Did they want us in makeup first, or to run the scene before we do that?”

“Georgi will be coming by to get us each individually. Mila’s running lines with us even though her character isn’t in the show yet. Just so when we’re off in makeup, we can still get it done,” Viktor said, immediately taking a place by Yuuri’s side, easily keeping stride with him as they walked to where they’d been directed to go.

“About my Tweet last night,” Viktor started, but before he could continue to tell Yuuri about his new dog, Yuri burst in. Viktor glanced over at him and smiled thinly. “I’ll tell you later.”

Yuuri looked at him in confusion, but nodded his head anyway. They had to get to work. Viktor grinned, pulling Yuri in toward them as soon as he was in the room, and he shoved Viktor off, trying to get away. He glared at the camera when Viktor tried to take a selfie of the three of them, and sat on the floor once he’d finally let go.

Yuuri sat beside him, pulling his script out, and looking to Viktor, who finally joined them on the floor.

Running lines sort of felt like it took a century. Yuri kept arguing with Viktor over the portrayal of a scene, and made Yuuri take a side before they continued (and Yuuri sort of hated to admit how many times he was on Yuri’s side). By the time Georgi was coming in to costume them, they’d made it through, and so Yuri and Yuuri sat on the floor together while they waited to be called into costumes.

“Don’t tell Viktor,” Yuri said, stretching out his arms behind him and leaning on the couch in the room, “But you’re not bad. You actually try to act, unlike him, who just gets lucky that he speaks dramatically anyway.”

“Thanks?” Yuuri looked at Yuri with a raised eyebrow, and the teenager scoffed at him. “I don’t think Viktor’s bad. I mean, if his awards have anything to say about it…”

“They don’t. People just like his hair,” Yuri said, scrolling through something on his phone. Yuuri wanted to say something else to him, but Georgi came in then to grab both of them for makeup and costumes, and Yuuri breathed out, glad to finally be alone for a few minutes.

The scene went without incident, since they’d managed to get through their lines a few times before it. It still took the full time that Yuri had on set, and he was complaining loudly into his phone that he didn’t want to do whatever lesson he had today as he changed out of his costume. Yuuri ignored him, walking over to Viktor.

“Hey, can we talk about something?” Yuuri looked up at Viktor. He knew that he shouldn’t really ask, but… he had to.

“Sure! What do you want to talk about?” Viktor was working on unbuckling his costume boots, setting them carefully where the costumers had always told him to, doing the same with the stockings he wore underneath his costume before looking back at Yuuri, that wide smile on his face.

The smile that made Yuuri want to melt into the ground and forget he had anything at all that he wanted to say to the other man. The smile that made Yuuri want to forget his anxieties and his cares and kiss Viktor until the world ended.

But nothing about that was reasonable, so Yuuri swallowed down his thoughts and smiled back at him, though he knew that his was a little more forced than Viktor’s. He couldn’t keep walking these eggshells around his co-star, especially not when their show might go on for god knows how long, but he couldn’t just announce to Viktor that he wanted to date him.

Lucky for Vik, who had the courage to tell his crush that he had a crush on him. Who was probably going to actually have a boyfriend this weekend, and forget all about Yuuri, his Internet husband. Not that he was _jealous_ of Vik dating or anything. It was irrational to want to date Vik, considering the fact that he really knew nothing about him. His best image of Vik was his profile picture – a piece of fanart drawn of Viktor from his ice skating au. A young Viktor Nikiforov with long hair and a black and silver and red skating costume wasn’t exactly a good mental image to have for someone if Yuuri was supposed to _not_ have a crush on him.

That wasn’t the point! His feelings about Vik were _so far_ from the point.

Yuuri barely had the courage to ask about a _dog_. Or… probably a dog. A tweet that was probably about a dog. He had to speak soon, or Viktor was going to be confused by this silence, and read who knows what into it. Yuuri really didn’t need any kind of subtext added to awkward silences.

“Your Tweet?” Yuuri asked, bringing up the courage to ask. Even if it was just a dog, he _needed_ to know. He needed confirmation, so he’d be able to push the fan theories out of his head. There was no way that that was what Viktor had actually meant, but getting it out of the way and making sure that it wasn’t? That would be great.

Viktor didn’t immediately answer, looking over at Yuri Plisetsky, who was still doing something on his phone, waiting for his ride to pick him up so he could go to his lessons. Viktor paused, turning back to Yuuri, a slightly nervous smile on his face.

No. Yuuri was reading into that. Viktor was not “slightly nervous”, Viktor just didn’t need to explain his every motive to Yuuri, and Yuuri should have let him just explain the Tweet when he wanted to, since he’d been so eager to explain it earlier in the day. Now Yuuri had probably made it weird, since he seemed overly eager about a dog.

That was fine. Yuuri _was_ really excited if Viktor was getting a new dog. He could play that off if he just made this conversation awkward and Viktor just told him that he was getting a dog. That was fine. He could do this. He wouldn’t admit his horrific crush on his co-star that lead him to read fanfiction and analyze pictures of them.

Yeah, that one wasn’t even a joke.

There was absolutely no way that Viktor would _ever_ know about katsukiforov, even on the weird off chance that he did mean Yuuri when he posted that Tweet. Katsukiforov could disappear off of Twitter, tumblr, Instagram, and everywhere else, but Viktor would never _ever_ know that he existed. Or that he was Yuuri.

“I… can we talk about it some other time? Over dinner, maybe? This weekend? We’re both off on Saturday before we run the new scripts, so we can talk then! At my apartment?” Viktor asked, tugging on his costume’s sleeves.

That… made sense, really. Especially if Yuuri was right, and this was about a dog. He would introduce Yuuri to the dog at his apartment, since that was where it was staying. Plus, dinner with Viktor on an off day… well, it didn’t sound like bad thing. Other than the fact that he would be pining over Viktor while Viktor showed him his new dog.

Or… well, there was the off chance that the fans were right about that Tweet. That that was really Viktor talking about Yuuri. That he wanted to date Yuuri as much as Yuuri wanted to date him. That would also make sense as a conversation that they should have at Viktor’s apartment.

Which made this all much more complicated.

Nonetheless, he nodded. “That sounds good. I’ll see you tomorrow!” Yuuri said, forcing a smile and waving goodbye to Yuri before walking toward his trailer. Once he was far enough away, he grabbed his phone from his pocket and opened tumblr.

**katsukiforov:** vik, crisis.

**therealviknik:** crisis? what’s happening?? more boy trouble???

**katsukiforov:** y e s. i have another not-date this weekend, vik. i can’t keep doing this. i can’t go over to his place and act like i don’t just want to kiss him immediately it’s killing me vik

**therealviknik:** i’m planning on telling my not-date that i want to date him this weekend. maybe yours will go just as well??

**katsukiforov:** he doesn’t want to date me, he just wants to introduce me to his new dog, i think. i don’t know. sometimes i just wish he was you :((( you make more sense than he does, vik.

**therealviknik:** awhhh, kat <3 you make more sense than my not-boyfriend too, but i’m still going to try to ask him out. unfortunately, internet marriages don’t count for much :’( and i can’t kiss you

**therealviknik:** and i Really want to kiss my not-boyfriend, kat. i might explode if i don’t kiss him soon.

**katsukiforov:** god, do i get that feeling, vik. maybe you’re right. maybe this will be okay.

**therealviknik:** i hope so <33 i have to go now, just got back from work, and need to edit this fic so i can get it up tonight. i’ll message you later. love you <33333

**katsukiforov:** see you later, vik. love you too <3

Almost as soon as he was back to his trailer, washing the makeup off of his face, Yuuri got the notification that Viktor had posted to Twitter. He had the feeling he knew what it was already, so he finished washing the makeup off of his face and laid down on his couch, grabbing his laptop and opening up Twitter.

**@v-nikiforov:** look who’s finally running lines with us!! @HistoryMakersTV [img attached: Yuri, Yuuri, and Viktor, all pressed up against each other. Yuri’s trying to pull away from them, and Viktor’s looking mostly at Yuuri, while Yuuri stares at the camera. All three are in full costume]

**@mckvy:** oooh!!! i wonder why yuri is with them. and viktor!!!! is dimitry back???

**@tigercatsuki:** @v-nikiforov he doesn’t look happy to be there with you. yuuri’s the only one that looks decent in that picture.

**@phoenixwaller:** i think it would physically kill viktor to not look at yuuri with total hearts in his eyes

**@katsukiforov:** @phoenixwaller you think he’s looking at yuuri with hearts in his eyes?

**@therealviknik:** @katsukiforov don’t tell me you’ve gone blind, kat. LOOK at viktor. you can’t tell me he’s Not completely In Love with yuuri

Yuuri couldn’t respond, looking at his phone. It… that didn’t seem possible, did it? Vik always read a lot into the selfies that Viktor posted, but this… Well, Yuuri could see where they were coming from. Viktor was looking right at them, even though he’d claimed to just be taking a normal selfie.

And the way that his hand lingered on Yuuri’s waist after the picture…

Yuuri liked the tweet, not even sure what account he was on any more and closed out of Twitter.

He sat in his room, fiddling around on his laptop for a while before logging onto tumblr. He ignored the DMs that he knew would be from Vik, and didn’t look at his dash, instead going straight into his Inbox. He’d had a request a few days ago to analyze the fact that Viktor and Yuri’s characters had such similar names.

Now that he’d filmed a scene with Yuri, maybe it was time to play with the theories surrounding that. He opened up a tab of Google and played his music loud enough to drown out the rest of his thoughts, typing up his response to the names until his phone dinged and he glanced down.

Vik had posted the fic Yuuri had requested the night of his and Viktor’s not-date – and gifted it to Yuuri. To Kat. Not to Yuuri, he had no idea he was talking to Yuuri. Would he think Yuuri was pathetic if he found out that the man he’d been talking to this long about Viktuuri was half of the ship?

Yuuri pushed the thoughts from his mind, sitting down with his legs underneath him and starting to read the fic, smiling at how he started it out – with Yuuri arriving at Viktor’s apartment. From Viktor’s point of view, Vik made it no secret how attractive he’d thought Yuuri looked in the picture.

Yuuri wished real Viktor had felt the same way.

He was almost done when he was interrupted. “Yuuri!” Phichit pushed into his room, his eyes wide. “Have you read it yet!?” Yuuri groaned. He knew that he read Vik’s fics quickly, but this was ridiculous. Phichit could really easily tell when Yuuri had read the fic from when his comment would show up. What was so shocking that Phichit had to _come to him_ about the fic? And how had he finished it so quickly? Had Yuuri’s email notification been delayed? Was he going to lose his spot as the first commenter on Vik’s fic?

Why was Phichit here right now!? They’d talk about it later, over dinner, or something. Yuuri still had to read the new scripts, too, and they wanted those read in the next two days, but he hadn’t even started and –

He breathed out, responding to Phichit, “I’m reading it right now. Calm down and read my Dima and Dimitry meta if you want to talk about it so soon.” Yuuri didn’t look up at his friend, scrolling down Vik’s newest fic with a small smile on his face. He wished this was how their date had gone. Soft kisses and mutual understanding and spending the night at Viktor’s house. Instead, he was here, reading about it.

He _was_ kind of pathetic, really.

“That’s not what I’m talking about, finish your comment and put your phone down. I mean the _script_. For Episode 13!” Phichit clarified, and Yuuri raised his eyebrows, typing out his comment more quickly as Phichit came to sit next to him.

**katsukiforov:** i wish i had longer to type this comment but i have work stuff soon :( vik, this fic was so cute. god i wish my not-date had gone like viktor and yuuri’s date in this fic. at least i have you <3

He didn’t have time to wait for Vik’s response back, though, because Phichit was looking at him as soon as he put his phone down. “What’s so important about Episode 13? Do they kill me off? I mean, I knew Mari working on the show wasn’t job security, but I thought we were doing _decent_.”

“No one is getting fired, Yuuri.” Phichit rolled his eyes before rushing into the rest of his statement, “You and Viktor – I mean, technically Mamoru and Dimitry, but you and Viktor, you _kiss_. They did it, holy shit, Dimoru is canon, I can’t believe this, how are we supposed to _not_ tell the Internet, Dimoru is _canon_ , and then Anuman _has_ to go and…” Phichit continued to talk about whatever else was contained in the script while Yuuri took the script from him, flipping to the last page.

He got to kiss Viktor Nikiforov.

No. No, he couldn’t think like that. He wasn’t kissing Viktor because they both mutually wanted this and had been pining for each other like some amazing romantic movie. No. He _had_ to kiss Viktor, for work.

He was going to kiss Viktor Nikiforov.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, thank you so much for reading/loving this fic <33 kudos/comments/bookmarks/etc. are always super amazingly appreciated and loved
> 
> [this is my blog](http://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/)!! feel free to follow to see what i'm up to, or reblog my posts, or talk to me, or request side stories or other prompts <333
> 
> also don't forget to wish [lily](http://queenofaburiedkingdom.tumblr.com/) a happy birthday. i love her. and all of you. <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuuri and Viktor have another not-date. They run lines. Vik slips up. Yuuri starts to figure out just how hard it is to keep his lives separate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YO WHAT'S UP sorry it's been since november this semester has been killing me at school.
> 
> this chapter was originally combined with the next one, but then it got too long. and it's still longer than normal so. sorry. except you don't care, you _want_ more
> 
> thank you so much for all of your support!!! every time someone gets excited about this fic, i get even more excited which is hard to do because i LOVE this fic

“What if I pretend that I’m sick?” Yuuri laid face-down on his couch, clothes spread on the floor around him. He and Viktor had another not-date, but things had just gotten so much more complicated with the scripts from the next episodes coming out. He couldn’t just cancel on Viktor, since he had something important to say to him apparently. But Viktor had also mentioned a few days ago (the day after they got the new scripts) that they run lines when they hung out as well, since they had so many scenes together.

They had to kiss in one of the upcoming scenes.

“You’re not going to pretend you’re sick. Ooh, what about the one with the stripes?” Phichit was on Skype with him, trying to help him pick what to wear. “You can wear the shirt with the stripes, and then your jeans.”

(Yes, Phichit was on Skype when he lived less than ten minutes away from Yuuri; he had plans for tonight and couldn’t talk for long, so it wasn’t worth it for him to come over to Yuuri’s place to help with the what-to-wear crisis. That he was having again, even though he had a very similar crisis last time. He was talking to Phichit instead of Vik this time because it was more specific to the clothes he owned than general appearance. And he really should not send Vik a picture of clothes that Yuuri had been seen very often and very recently. Not if he wanted to keep up the act.)

“Is that too casual?” Yuuri slid down from the couch to sit closer to his phone, picking up the suggested shirt, turning it over in his hands.

“I thought you said this wasn’t a date?” Phichit was smirking at Yuuri and Yuuri groaned.

“It’s not! You _know_ it’s not, Phichit. Don’t you think you’d be the first person I’d tell if I was actually dating Viktor Nikiforov?” Though, with that point, Yuuri supposed that the shirt was fine. It was a nice shirt, and if he rolled up his pants and wore decent shoes with it, he could dress it up a _little_ , just in case Viktor dressed like he had last time.

“I know, I know. So what are you doing on your not-date this time?”

“We were going to run lines,” Yuuri answered. And that’s what he was dreading most, he didn’t care what Viktor had to tell him right now. He was sure that that was nothing too serious, but _running lines_ with Viktor was a nightmare right now. Because they had to _kiss_. Would he bring that up? Would he try to make a joke of it?

“Just try not to freak out on him, Yuuri. He’s still just Viktor, even if you need to kiss him now,” Phichit said, and Yuuri couldn’t figure out if he was joking or if that was seriously his advice.

“He’s never been _just Viktor_.” Yuuri covered his face with his hands, letting out a sigh after a moment. “I need to go, Phichit. I have to get dressed, and get to Viktor’s.” He didn’t need to be to Viktor’s for an hour, but Phichit didn’t know that. And this conversation really wasn’t helping as much as he had hoped it would.

“See you later, Yuuri! Have fun on your not-date! If he wants to kiss you, let him!” Phichit signed off of Skype and Yuuri closed out of the app, his eyes lingering on his other notifications. He probably shouldn’t be texting Vik while getting ready to see Viktor…

Yuuri got dressed, choosing the clothes that Phichit had suggested and sitting back on his coach, opening his laptop, his phone in his hand. He opened the message from Vik.

**therealviknik:** kat!!!!! major crisis!!!!!

**katsukiforov:** what’s going on?

**therealviknik:** so say i work with the guy that i have a crush on, the one i went on that not-date with last week?

**therealviknik:** and say i have to spend more time with him than usual soon

**therealviknik:** for business. a business trip.

**therealviknik:** is it a bad idea to still tell him that i want to date him

**therealviknik:** i don’t want to make it awkward between us

**katsukiforov:** if you’re so worried it’s going to make it awkward, maybe just wait?

**therealviknik:** we were supposed to have another not-date tonight :( i was gonna tell him that i wanted to date him what am i supposed to say now

**katsukiforov:** talk about business or something, i guess. if you have a business trip with him

**therealviknik:** thank you!!!

**therealviknik:** you’re the best!!!! i love you, yuuri!!!! <333

Yuuri froze, his phone shaking in his hands. Wait, no, that was his hands shaking. Did Vik know? Had he posted something to the wrong account? That was bad. That was really bad. Yuuri was going to throw up, he was going to get fired, he was in so fucking much trouble, Vik _knew_.

How long was his pause between looking at the message and responding? It felt like _hours_ , Yuuri writing a message and then erasing it, saying something else. There were so many terrible things that could come from this, and he couldn’t figure out where he’d slipped up.

Maybe he hadn’t slipped up. Vik wouldn’t drop it so casually, would he? If Vik had somehow figured out that he was _actually_ talking to Yuuri Katsuki about his and Viktor’s relationship, he wouldn’t be so subtle revealing that he knew.

What if he posted it on tumblr? Called Yuuri out for being a creep, posted it somewhere that Viktor might see. Or, no, Vik wouldn’t call Yuuri a creep, but someone else might. If Vik knew, who else did? Vik talked to _a lot_ of people in the fandom, any number of people could learn this from Vik. If he told one person, and they posted it on Twitter, if they mentioned Viktor in it –

Yuuri had to stop jumping to conclusions. He had to take a second and he had to breathe. Vik didn’t know. Vik _couldn’t_ know. Something else was happening. This was a completely innocent mistake that any other fan would be laughing at. Finally, he looked down at his phone and responded.

**katsukiforov:** yuuri?

**therealviknik:** oops! um i mean kat

**therealviknik:** i’m sorry i looked at your icon and i guess i just started to imagine yuuri’s face in my head when i saw it oops sorry

**therealviknik:** i was also looking up something about yuuri

**therealviknik:** for a fic i’m working on i know you’re not yuuri haha um

**katsukiforov:** no it’s fine

**katsukiforov:** i was just teasing you

**katsukiforov:** i have to go get ready for something i’ll talk to you later

He turned his phone off, shoving it into his pocket and staring at the wall. This was… did he believe Vik? There was no way to tell that Yuuri was Kat, right? Yuuri logged onto Twitter, checking through all of the Tweets and likes on both of his accounts before also checking his tumblr, and even his Instagram. Everything was clean of traces that something weird was going on.

Still, he looked at the picture that was his tumblr icon for katsukiforov. It was a newer picture, him and Viktor with their arms slung around each other. He’d not even thought to ask why Vik had called him Yuuri, not Viktor. Viktor was in the picture just as much as Yuuri was. Maybe it was because Vik seemed to like Yuuri better anyway?

Yuuri grabbed his laptop, quickly saving another promo shot of History Makers and cropping it to the right size. It was a picture of Viktor as Dimitry, from the mid-season finale. His outfit was dirty, and his hair pulled back the way that Viktor did for the show, combed up and away from his eye. It was an attractive picture of Viktor, and Yuuri was nowhere in sight.

Just in case. Would Vik think it was weird that he changed his icon right after he had accidentally called him Yuuri because of his icon? He didn’t care, he couldn’t care. That had been too close. Too close to something that couldn’t happen. He saved the icon on his Twitter, too (triple checking that he was logged into the katsukiforov account) before logging out.

Oh god. This was so confusing and strange. Vik messaged him again and Yuuri deleted the notification, something to deal with later. It was probably just a good luck for his not-date, anyway.

With Viktor. Because he was supposed to meet with Viktor again soon. He should have made Phichit stay for longer, but he didn’t want to drag him away from a night with his friends just because Yuuri was panicking about hanging out with one of his co-stars.

He still had an hour before he was supposed to meet with Viktor, and Yuuri was going to use that time reading fic or talking to Vik, but he couldn’t bring himself to log back on yet. Not after he’d just freaked out so much over something so small that would matter to literally no one else. Another fan would have genuinely been making fun of Vik for a slipup like that. Another fan wouldn’t have such a strong interest in making sure that they were not attached to Yuuri Katsuki at all.

He managed to play a game on his phone for nearly a half an hour before it was just too much. He looked in the mirror to make sure that he still looked okay (not that it _mattered_ , because this wasn’t a date) before grabbing his script and walking out. He meant to take the long way to get to Viktor’s, but he just walked straight there, knocking on his door. It opened a second later and Yuuri had to force himself to make eye contact with Viktor instead of continuing his appreciative stare of Viktor.

How did Viktor do it? He was wearing such a simple outfit – jeans, a soft looking pink shirt (it didn’t even _fit_ him. His shirt was too big and it _still_ looked like Viktor was a model), and _socks_. No shoes, just socks. And not just any socks, no. Viktor’s socks were covered in cartoon dogs. Viktor was probably sock-sliding around his apartment like no other in cartoon dog socks, but he still managed to punch the breath out of Yuuri without even trying. Yuuri was overdressed and _still_ didn’t look half as handsome as Viktor did. Someone explain how that was fair or possible.

“Oh, Yuuri!” Viktor said excitedly, like he had been expecting someone else to be at the door. Yuuri was like half an hour early, though, so he really wasn’t surprised by the surprise and confusion on Viktor’s face. “You’re early!” Viktor waved Yuuri in, closing the door behind them. As he walked inside, Viktor’s eyes widened and he moved forward to close his laptop a little too quickly, wincing at the noise it made when it shut, and he set it aside.

“Yeah, sorry. I… I wasn’t doing anything before this, and Phichit had to be somewhere, so I just walked over.” Yuuri shrugged a little, but was relieved to see that Viktor was still smiling. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything?” He motioned toward the closed laptop.

“No, no! I was just working on… something.” Yuuri definitely imagined the flush on Viktor’s cheeks, because what could he have been working on that possibly caused that kind of reaction? He wasn’t like Yuuri, hiding his fan accounts about them. Hiding the fact that he was so obsessed with Viktor that he’d disguised himself as one of the fans. Reading the stories that they wrote, about his crush.

Ha.

Wouldn’t that be something? Wouldn’t it really be something if Viktor were in his shoes? Viktor, sinking down to this ridiculous level of reading fanfictions about the two of them together, because he couldn’t act on his stupid crush.

Viktor having a crush on Yuuri.

Yuuri didn’t know which seemed less believable.

“I was thinking we could order pizza and run lines?” Viktor suggested, closing the door behind Yuuri. At the sound of the door closing, Makkachin came rushing in. She barked in excitement when she saw Yuuri, ramming into Viktor’s legs to get to him. Viktor laughed, moving out of the way so Yuuri could duck down and pet the dog. “Do you have anything particular you like on your pizza?”

“Whatever you want is fine,” Yuuri answered, smiling at him and walking into the main living space of the apartment so he could put his script down, sitting on the ground to play with Makkachin while Viktor was on the phone for the pizza.

Once Viktor came back, he sat across from Yuuri, grabbing his own script. “We don’t have any scenes together until the finale, right?” he asked.

Yuuri nodded, opening the script to the first page. Nearly the entire finale was about Mamoru and Dimitry, considering it led up to such a big reveal. He read off his first line, falling easily into character, miming the general blocking that they had written into the scripts. Which meant the scripts went on the floor after a while, Viktor and Yuuri progressively closer to each other.

Yuuri was turning to the last page when suddenly his script was invisible to him, something large and soft sitting atop of it. “Makkachin!” Viktor laughed, scratching at her ears. Yuuri leaned away from Viktor again, his heart pounding.

They were sitting on the floor with each other, but apparently Makkachin had gotten jealous that no one was showing her attention. She sat right in between them, on top of the closed script. Yuuri bit his lip, laughing at the poodle and scratching at her ears. “Someone needs more attention,” Viktor said, laughing as well, grabbing his phone to take a picture of her. They weren’t going to kiss before, were they? They couldn’t. That was… Viktor wouldn’t want to, even for practice, right? Of course he wouldn’t.

Yuuri walked over to the toy box, grabbing Makkachin one of her squeaky toys and squatting down beside her. “C’mon, girl. We need that,” Yuuri cooed, trying to coax her off of the script while Viktor took pictures of them. It only took a few tries before Makkachin jumped off and tackled Yuuri, wrestling with him on the ground before grabbing the toy from him and dashing off to the corner, happily squeaking it. The alarm rang and Viktor shot to his feet, still typing on his phone.

“That’s probably the pizza. I’ll be right back, go have a seat on the couch!” Viktor waved Yuuri off to the couch, finishing whatever he was typing and dashing to the door, grabbing the cash as he did. Yuuri heard the soft sound of socks sliding against the ground and he laughed, half expecting a resulting crash of Viktor sock-sliding into the door. Miraculously, he didn’t.

Yuuri’s phone buzzed with a notification that Viktor had tweeted – which explained what he had been typing on his phone while Yuuri and Makkachin had been wrestling.

**@v-nikiforov:** makkachin is trying to get some spoilers while @y-katsuki and i are running lines for the next episodes of @HistoryMakersTV ;) exciting things are happening!!! we had to take a break so she wouldn't tell you any secrets ;) [img attached: In the background, Makkachin was laying on top of the History Makers script, arranged so that she was blocking the episode number and title, only the logo visible. Yuuri was sitting next to her, one of her toys in his hand, trying to lure her off of the script. Viktor  was smiling at the camera, clearly laughing.]

Yuuri took one look at the Tweet and immediately saved the image to his phone, trying very hard not to take a fan’s perspective on the image. Trying very hard not to think about how they looked like a couple, on a date. On a Saturday night, in Viktor’s apartment, at dinner time, with Viktor’s dog.

The script was there. They were doing work. It was really clear they were doing work. This was not a date.

Yuuri was apparently logged into his katsukiforov account, because it immediately started blowing up with people dinging him and Vik to look at the picture that had just been posted. Yuuri glanced up to make sure that Viktor was still out of the room before he liked the Tweet, quickly typing a response.

**@katsukiforov:** @therealviknik are all of our puppy fic dreams coming true this is so cute

People started to like his response almost immediately. He knew that Vik wouldn’t, though, because Vik was still at his not-date, so Yuuri pushed the notifications off of the screen, logging back into his official account so he could like Viktor’s tweet, responding with a picture of Makkachin as she was now, laying in the corner, happily chewing on the offered toy.

When Viktor walked back into the room, he was smiling at something on his phone, and Yuuri shoved his own back into his pocket, even though he was logged back into an account that Viktor wouldn’t question now. Yuuri didn’t even have notifications on for his actual Twitter, since people tended to spam it with likes and replies and retweets, considering how many followers he had. The katsukiforov account, though… When he was logged in, it gave him notifications still, since there weren’t usually too many. Was it too risky to use the katsukiforov account while he was literally in Viktor’s apartment? Especially since Vik had _just_ accidentally called him Yuuri.

Oh god, no. He couldn’t think about that. He couldn’t let himself focus on that again and start panicking. This was fine. Everything was _fine_. His life was not an absolute dumpster fire where the person who wrote fics about him on the Internet accidentally called him his real name, where he was eating pizza with the man he’d had a crush on for years, where he had to _kiss_ said man for work.

Viktor walked back in, setting their pizza on the coffee table and sitting down next to Yuuri again. “Dig in! Do you want to watch a movie?” Viktor asked, picking up a slice of the pizza and taking a bite of it.

Yuuri grabbed a slice of the pizza, shrugging. “That’s fine.” He might as well stay longer. This was going shockingly smoothly despite everything else in his life, and the longer that Yuuri could extend spending time with Viktor, the better.

“Go pick one!” Viktor pointed to the cabinet that the movies were in, settling in on the couch with his phone in his hand, probably flipping through comments on his most recent Tweet. Yuuri tried very hard not to think about the comment he’d left, walking up to the movie cabinet.

He couldn’t help but laugh at the first few he saw, ducking his head down. “You own all of your own?”

“Do you not?” Viktor looked genuinely surprised, and Yuuri stared at him in shock.

“It’s embarrassing. I… My parents own everything I’ve been in, but I don’t usually… I haven’t been in nearly as many as you have. I own them, but they’re in a box under my bed, not in the cabinet with the movies I actually watch,” Yuuri answered, glad that he was facing away from Viktor so Viktor couldn’t see the blush building on his cheeks.

“Who says I don’t watch them?” Viktor smirked, and Yuuri choked a little, looking at the earlier titles. He knew, of course, from being a giant fan of Viktor, which were his favorites that he’d acted in. Which was why he picked up one of Viktor’s first, _A Lilac Fairy_. It was a good movie, and (like everything Viktor acted in) well-acted, but Viktor still consistently named it as the most embarrassing thing he’d ever acted in.

“So you want to watch this one?” Yuuri couldn’t believe he was being so bold, and Viktor took one look at the movie before he burst out laughing.

“Yuuri!” He whined, covering his face with his hands to hide his laughter.

“We won’t watch it,” Yuuri promised, sliding it back into the cabinet, scanning the shelves before catching sight of a favorite (that Viktor hadn’t starred in). He grabbed it off the shelf, showing it to Viktor. “This good?”

“I love it! That’s one of my favorites. Go put it in,” Viktor asked, grabbing another slice of pizza while Yuuri slid the movie in, walking back over to sit next to him. He tugged on his sleeves to cover his hands, making sure not to sit right next to Viktor, but to leave a bit of space between them. Viktor nodded happily, settling back into the couch as the movie began.

They didn’t say much to each other throughout the movie, other than a few soft comments about the storyline or a favorite part of the movie. The pizza disappeared throughout the night, equally split between the two of them with no real effort to make it so. It was _natural_. 

But then there was the uncrossable space between them the whole night, barely there, but it felt like an ocean apart. Yuuri could fit his hand, with his fingers splayed out in the space between him and Viktor without touching him, but that was about as big as the space got. But… they were… so comfortable with each other. Maybe… you know, it wouldn’t be so bad if they… stayed friends. If they could still have moments like this, teasing and laughing with each other.

He didn’t notice that they were getting closer to each other until their shoulders were touching. Laughter from the final scene of the movie shook both of their shoulders, and Yuuri looked up at Viktor, trying to read the look in his eyes as the credits began to roll.

“I guess I should get going.” Yuuri moved from Viktor, trying to disguise his small panic about how close and comfortable they were. About just how much that felt like a date. About how he didn’t know how he was going to kiss Viktor in just over a week and them promptly let him go again.

“Is your call early tomorrow?” They had completely different call times the next few days since their characters’ story lines diverged again until they could reach the final conclusion of the season.

“Not really, but there’s a lot of long days of filming coming up,” Yuuri answered, but smiled nonetheless. They were going to be filming a lot of integral scenes for the show in the next few days, and Yuuri was excited for it all to come together. “There are some really cool shoots me and Phichit have to do the next couple of days.”

“And you’re ready for the last scene?” Viktor finally asked the question that Yuuri had been hoping to avoid. The kiss. Was Yuuri ready to kiss the man that he had had a crush on since he was basically a kid? The man that he was obsessed with, that he couldn’t stop daydreaming about a life with.

He couldn’t very well say, “No, I’m absolutely horrified but also incredibly excited I’ve been wanting to kiss you since I got this part, and even before that.” That was… not going to go over well. That was the sort of thing he’d say in one of Vik’s fanfictions, and they’d share a soft kiss. ‘Practice’ for the scene. Or just kiss because they were in love.

But that was Vik’s fics, and this was the real world. “I don’t see why not. The fans are going to be excited; they’ve been trying to figure out Dimitry and Mamoru’s relationship since the first episode. I don’t know if any of them expected that they’d actually be soulmates in the show,” Yuuri replied, laughing. Expect he did know. He knew ridiculously detailed headcanons on why Mamoru and Dimitry seemed to keep getting pulled to each other. No one had guessed the exact ending, but there were a lot of guesses. “And, I mean, I kissed Chris a few episodes ago, so I don’t see how this will be any different.”

Except it was. This kiss was so different. This kiss could make everything go so terribly wrong. This kiss was… Yuuri didn’t know how you could simultaneously dread and want something so badly that it hurt you. This was nothing like kissing Chris.

“Right.” Viktor continued to smile at Yuuri, and Yuuri did his best not to read into that smile too much. No, the smile didn’t change a little bit, no it didn’t look faker after he had spoken. “Well, I’ll see you on set tomorrow, then! Or… I guess maybe not. We don’t share a scene for the next two episodes.” Viktor frowned.

And he was right. Their characters weren’t meant to meet again until the big fight in the last episode of the season. Almost all of Yuuri’s scenes the next few days were with Phichit and Yuuko, and a few with Chris and Yuri.

Which meant that Viktor and Yuuri weren’t going to see each other on set, in costume, until the day they kissed.

“I’ll see you then!” Yuuri responded, raising his hand in a wave and fleeing from Viktor’s apartment.

It wasn’t until he was walking back to his own apartment that he realized he hadn’t asked Viktor what his tweet had been about, and Viktor hadn’t brought it up. Maybe that meant that it wasn’t important? It was a conversation for another time? Maybe Viktor had just forgotten. After all, he was probably no getting the dog for a few more weeks, since they were busy with the last few episodes.

(He didn’t let his mind linger on the idea of what if it wasn’t a dog at all.)

He finally opened Vik’s messages from before he’d gone to see Viktor.

**therealviknik:** but imagine if you were yuuri

**therealviknik:** that’d be insane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter!!! more things happen!!! i'm not gonna promise it in the next month or so bc finals are coming up very soon, but there is a chance because i have 1k of it written already since,,, it originally _was_ this chapter. thanks for being awesome!
> 
> [yoyoplisetsky](http://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com) is my blog. sometimes i post things (short side stories, headcanons, etc.) about this fic [in this tag](http://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/tagged/i%20will%20go%20down%20with%20this%20ship!).
> 
> as always, a thousand thank yous for kudos/comments/bookmarks. i am blown away by the love this fic gets.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all!! the chapter is readyyyy get hypeeee things happen!! my summer has started which means that hopefully this fic will be updating more often!! i'm in a few bangs that i need to finish up before i come back to update again but i'm hoping to get out at least a chapter or two for this and my other wips this summer <33
> 
> (thanks to locallygrownavocado for your help earlier with finishing this chapter asjlkfsa;; it was so much help)
> 
> this chapter somehow ended up like 4.5k like the last one even though they used to be one chapter but ?? you know it happens

The next week of filming was easy. Most of Yuuri’s scenes were with Phichit and Yuuko, since it was developing the three of their characters as a trio before the finale (in which Yuuko’s character for the season was getting killed off, and Yuuri’s character was going to join sides with Viktor’s, and Phichit’s was going to disappear for a while). Phichit kept trying to talk to Yuuri about the Vik/Kat situation and his “date” with Viktor, but Yuuri kept avoiding the conversation, or bringing Yuuko in with them so Phichit would stop.

The day before they were set to film the kissing scene, Yuuri had been shooting all day with Viktor. Considering the episode was completely about Mamoru and Dimitry, really, it made sense that they had so many scenes together. But it also meant that Yuuri was on edge because the next day was going to be the same way, but worse. Because tomorrow was the day that they had to kiss.

Viktor got off of set a few hours earlier than Yuuri, because Yuuri also had a few scenes that he had to shoot with Yakov and Yuri.

He was waiting to film his last scene when his phone buzzed. Yuuri glanced down at his phone, surprised to hear it go off. It was probably just a tweet from Viktor, about Makkachin or something. He nearly dropped it when he saw the notification. Vik had posted a new fic, titled ‘Falling in Love’. Yuuri looked around cautiously before he opened the email up on his phone, pulling the fic up so that he could read the description. It read: _Their first kiss was in Yuuri’s trailer, something soft and sweet and unexpected. They kept kissing through the night, until they fell asleep together, tangled in each other’s arms. They were in love - and what was better than that?_

Yuuri tried very hard not to drop his phone because that was _not helping_ in a situation like this. He groaned nonetheless, staring down at his phone as he began to read the fic. He was supposed to be stopping this, wasn’t he? He wasn’t supposed to be encouraging himself to read more about being in love with Viktor. Reading a fic about them kissing again and again was not helping the fact that they were going to be kissing the next day.

But he couldn’t help himself. After months of reading Vik’s fic, he couldn’t stop himself from reading the fic.

And the fic was adorable. Unfairly in character, as always, unfairly plausible, as always, but completely impossible. He loved it, nonetheless.

 **katsukiforov _commented_ ** too cute, vik. great fic, as always. forever makes me wish it was canon…

 **therealviknik _commented_** thank you, kat!!! maybe one day. i feel like they just get closer and closer every day. the day it becomes canon is the day i Die honestly.

 **nikiforoov _commented_**!!!! viknik i loved this so much oh my goddd. them first waking up together is a Dream Come True oh my god viktor would totally post that selfie of them in bed and in love omg i’m in love with their love thank you so much for being in this fandom

 **teekettle _commented_ ** i didn’t even have to read this fic to know i was going to love it.

They get closer and closer? What did Vik even _mean_ by that? Yes, Yuuri and Viktor had been spending more time together lately, and Viktor had been posting more pictures of them lately, but that didn’t mean they were becoming more canon, did it? It just meant that they were friends, as much as Yuuri wished it was anything else.

This was why he had to stop this. He couldn’t be one of the fans that read into his and Viktor’s relationship when he actually knew Viktor.

These were the facts: Yuuri wanted to date Viktor. Desperately. He would say yes in a heartbeat if Viktor asked him out. Viktor had never asked Yuuri out, and he doubted that he would. They had to kiss tomorrow, for the show. They had to kiss, and everyone was going to watch it, and Vik was probably going to write a fic about it.

It was going to be a disaster. For the fandom, but more importantly, for Yuuri. Once he kissed Viktor, he was just going to fall deeper down into this, and, at this point, it was obvious that there was no way for him to drag himself out of it.

They finished filming for the day, and Yuuri went back to his trailer. He considered flipping through tumblr, or twitter, but he knew that would only make him more anxious for the day to come.

He thought about texting Phichit, but Phichit would no doubt start to talk to him about Vik’s new fic. Phichit had no idea what had happened between him and Vik, and he didn’t really want to tell him yet. He didn’t want to sit alone in his trailer all night, though, and Yuuri stared up at the ceiling before grabbing his phone.

 **to mari:** Do you want to go get dinner?

 **from mari:** Don’t you have an early call tomorrow, Yuuri?

 **to mari:** It’s not that late yet. Please!

 **from mari:** I suppose you want me to drive you, too?

 **to mari:** I’ll pay!

 **from mari:** I was going to go with you anyway but now I’ll definitely take you up on that. Make my famous little brother buy me food ;)

 **from mari:** I’ll be there in ten.

Yuuri set his phone to the side, grabbing his jacket and throwing it on over his clothes. He tugged on his shoes, grabbing his wallet. He hesitated for a moment before grabbing his sunglasses and a beanie, too. Usually people didn’t interrupt him when he went out places and tried to blend in, especially when he was with Mari, but he really didn’t want to take chances tonight, not when he was already so on edge.

He tugged the beanie on until it covered enough of his head, sliding the sunglasses on and rushing out to the street so he’d be there before Mari pulled up. He climbed into his sister’s car and she raised her eyebrows. Thankfully, she stayed silent for a few minutes, letting him turn on the radio very softly as she started the drive.

“You okay, Yuuri?” Of course Mari would recognize that the full disguise meant that Yuuri was anxious about something. “Is this about filming tomorrow?”

They hadn’t purposely ended up on the same show, but Yuuri was forever grateful that it had happened. Mari wasn’t in charge of casting, only the writing and some directing, so she had no part in Yuuri getting cast (something he’d made sure of multiple times before even auditioning for the show that his sister was working on). It was helpful that she was on the show, though, because that meant that she knew what was going on in his job without him having to worry about saying things that he wasn’t allowed to.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Yuuri muttered, sinking into his seat and looking over at his sister. She’d picked where they were going, apparently, but they had such similar tastes in food that Yuuri was sure she picked something he’d like. It was probably the Japanese place a few streets away that they’d found when they’d first moved here for filming, if she was able to tell he was anxious.

“Kissing Viktor?” she asked, glancing over at him. Yuuri slid off his sunglasses while they were in the car, gathering that and his beanie into his lap.

“Mari, you know I’ve had a crush on him since I was like twelve,” Yuuri groaned, because it was no use trying to hide that from his sister. Yuuri had had posters of Viktor in his first movie on his wall as soon as he found out that they existed; he’d bought fan-made posters of Viktor before that. “And I know I shouldn’t be this worked up about it, because it’s for work, but I’m _kissing_ Viktor Nikiforov tomorrow.”

“I know,” Mari laughed. “I wrote the scene. I knew it was happening before the two of you were cast, but it would have been there whether I knew who you were playing or not. It’s gotta happen.”

“I don’t want the scene not to happen,” Yuuri answered, squeezing his beanie between his hands so he didn’t have to look at his sister. “I mean… it makes sense, for the characters. And I don’t want to not kiss Viktor. I just…”

“Wish it was _you_ kissing Viktor?” Mari teased. Yuuri was surprisingly thankful for his sister teasing about this. She didn’t know about Vik and Kat, she didn’t know just how much Yuuri desperately wanted to kiss Viktor. She just knew that he was her little brother and he was going to kiss his childhood crush tomorrow. It was a refreshingly simple conversation, and something that Yuuri desperately needed.

Yuuri still scowled at her, because they both knew that he wouldn’t say no to that. “Mari, what if we have to shoot the scene more than once? What if it’s just hours of me and Viktor kissing?”

Mari broke into laughter at his words and Yuuri flushed red, looking away from his sister. “Is that really what you’re worried about, Yuuri? Having to kiss Viktor more than once? You know, there’s a really easy way you could deal with that problem.”

“Which is?” he muttered the words, but was smiling a little at the familiar teasing from his sister.

“Tell him you want to kiss him,” Mari simply said, turning to him with a shit-eating grin that had Yuuri covering his face and groaning her name. “I mean it! If you’re so hung up on this, just tell him you want to go out with him! Probably do it tomorrow _after_ the kiss, so you don’t fuck that up if he does say no.”

“He will say no,” Yuuri mumbled. “I already know that.”

“Are you blind? That man posts a selfie with you nearly every day, Yuuri. And he posts a shit ton on Instagram, I give you that, but even if he’s not _into you_ , he’d still probably try at least one date. It’s worth a shot.” Mari shrugged. They were parking, and Yuuri tugged his hat and sunglasses back on before he got out of the car. He stayed quiet while they waited to be seated, and he thanked the waiter when they led them back into a more private area, where Yuuri could tug off the accessories again.

“You really think he might say yes to a date?” Yuuri asked. It was different hearing it from his sister. Phichit was biased, obviously, since he was Yuuri’s friend and so invested in the stuff online. Mari had no idea what else was happening.

“At least one. He definitely likes you as a friend, and you’re cute. I don’t know why he wouldn’t give it a shot.” She met his eyes and he nodded slowly, smiling a little. “Now get some katsudon and let’s get home early. You’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Mari.” Yuuri was still freaking out about it, but Mari’s reassurances made him a little more comfortable with what was going to happen.

“And if you don’t ask him out, stop freaking out about it, Yuuri. You’re still gonna be friends with him after this scene tomorrow. If you don’t ask him out, this is just the same as kissing Chris, and anybody else was. If you do ask him out, and the first date doesn’t go well, Viktor doesn’t seem like the type to forget about you forever. No matter what.” The waiter walked in as Mari finished, and so she and Yuuri ordered their food and the conversation shifted to their plans during the filming hiatus. After the show ended, they were taking a trip home together.

After they’d eaten, Mari drove Yuuri back to his trailer, dropping him off with another order to make sure that he got back to set on time and that he was going to be fine tomorrow. Yuuri slept easily after the meal with his sister, but was incredibly stressed by the time that he slept and went to set.

The first few scenes went smoothly, only a couple of reshoots or misspoken lines. As the day went on, Yuuri tried desperately to keep from stumbling more and more on his lines. This was not going to be easy. Every scene that they completed, he was a scene closer to having to kiss Viktor.

Finally, it was time to shoot the scene.

Mamoru and Dimitry had just been locked in a fight where it had looked like one of them was bound to die. Both had gotten scattered cuts and bruises, and the actors were made to look that way as well. However, when Mamoru had the sword against Dimitry’s throat, about to strike, tears falling, and hands shaking, Dimitry said his name.

Mamoru’s knees collapsed, causing the two to fall to the ground, the sword clattering away from them, and instead holding each other in their arms as Dimitry shook.

Overlaid over this would be flashbacks that they’d shot earlier in the day in the final take. Yuuri imagined it would be a very moving scene.

If he could live through filming it.

Yuuri leaned in, grasping at Viktor’s loose clothing. “You recognize me,” he spoke his line, hands slipping from the fake blood on Viktor’s arm. “You know who I am.” He began to cry, as the script told him to, trying not to freeze up. “Dimitry, I tried so hard, I couldn’t get you back.”

“Couldn’t get me back?” Viktor’s hands were both on his face, holding him close to himself. “Mamoru, I _killed_ you. More than once. And you still wanted me.”

“How could I not?” Yuuri sobbed, wrapping his arms around Viktor’s neck, holding him close. “We’re soulmates, Dimitry. The world literally created us for each other. I wished, so many times, that I would _stop_ wanting you, but I can’t.” Yuuri pulled away, looking up into Viktor’s eyes, which were also full of tears.

He had to stay in character. He had to keep breathing. He couldn’t freak out just because his crush was going to kiss him. This was work. He was a professional actor, he wasn’t going to freak out because his character needed to kiss someone. Viktor’s fingers pressed against his lips, and a sob escaped. “Mamoru,” Viktor whispered. “I’m sorry.” It was time. Viktor leaned down, meeting their lips. He tasted like tears and fake blood, but still Yuuri wanted this kiss to last forever.

“Please don’t leave me,” Yuuri begged, so out of character from what Mamoru had been all season. Gone was Mamoru, the playboy who seemed to sleep with whoever he wanted, who seemed to have no real connections to anyone other than Annaisha and Anuman. Here was Mamoru, Dimitry’s soulmate. “Not again, please. Please tell me what’s happening,” Yuuri whispered, clinging to him. Viktor kissed him again, lingering longer.

But it wasn’t Viktor kissing Yuuri, it was Dimitry kissing Mamoru. He pulled away, still wrapped in Yuuri’s arms. “Kazimir. He took me, he had me. He wants to stop us. It’s all Kazimir,” he whispered desperately. Yuuri knew that Yakov’s character was now in shot behind them, so he breathed out, leaning in to kiss Viktor the last time.

“We won’t let him.”

As Viktor’s head fell against Yuuri’s shoulder, Celestino yelled, “Cut! That was great, guys,” he said, looking at the camera still before grinning at the two of them. “We need at least two more shots, to make sure that we get all of the right angles, but do it like that again and we won’t need to reshoot it at all!”

He sounded happy. Yuuri should probably be happy, too. Yuuri should probably be ecstatic that he wasn’t going to be tortured kissing Viktor all day with kisses that meant absolutely nothing. He should be so pleased that he wouldn’t be able to fall deeper into this hole of being uncontrollably crushing on his cast mate.

It was too late, though.

Their kiss wasn’t romantic. There was nothing romantic about kissing on camera for work, covered in fake blood, sweat, and tears. But Viktor’s lips had been so soft, and he had been so gentle kissing Yuuri.

But that _wasn’t Viktor_.

Yuuri was going to get mental whiplash. This was all too much to handle. It was too much to handle the fact that he had just kissed Viktor, but he hadn’t actually kissed _Viktor_ , but now all of his thoughts _about_ kissing Viktor had a physical feeling associated with them and –

Yuuri ran a hand over his face, glad that Viktor had walked away somewhere to get his makeup touched up. Yuuri just had to be covered in more blood. He sat on the ground there, letting Georgi do what he had to as he waited for Celestino to review the footage and call Viktor back. Viktor was off to the side chatting with someone, and he slid back to the ground next to Yuuri.

“Selfie?” he asked with a far too pleasant grin for the turmoil in Yuuri’s thoughts. Still, Yuuri nodded. “Celestino said I could post it, so we’d have something to tease the finale. Obviously, no one really knows what’s going on just from the two of us.” Viktor motioned between them, and the fact that both of them were carefully painted with blood. “He thinks it would be good to get people excited to see us on set together, though!”

Yuuri nodded, leaning in toward Viktor. Viktor wrapped an arm around Yuuri’s shoulders, and Yuuri let himself fall against Viktor, letting out a soft sigh. Viktor grinned, taking the selfie. He looked at the picture, his arm still around Yuuri’s waist. Yuuri needed him to let go but couldn’t bring himself to tell Viktor that. It wasn’t like he _wanted_ him to let go.

The selfie was far from an attractive one of the two of them, but Yuuri expected nothing better from a day of filming hard scenes. Still, Viktor smiled like he was the happiest he’d ever been. “Do you think think this one is good?” He sought Yuuri’s approval, despite the obviously pleased look on his face.

“Yeah,” Yuuri said, shrugging his shoulders and letting Viktor keep hold of his phone. “The best one you’re going to get for today. You look good in it,” Yuuri’s mouth moved before his brain did, and his eyes immediately widened, avoiding eye contact with Viktor. For god’s sake, he had to pull himself together.

“I – “ Viktor started, but was unable to finish.

“You two ready?” Celestino interrupted whatever Viktor had been about to say, and Yuuri nodded.

“We’re good!” he called back. Viktor looked at him, conflicted for a second before nodding his head in agreement and giving Celestino a thumbs up. He handed his phone off to one of the people on set, getting back into position.

How was it, that of all of the scenes in the show, this one went smoothly? There was no tables falling over, no one else dropped things off set, no one screwed up their lines. It was just Viktor and Yuuri, and they nailed it every time that they tried it. On the last scene, Yuuri ended with their foreheads leaning together, arms wrapped tightly around each other.

Maybe, if he was lucky, Celestino would tell them they had to shoot one more time. This was his only change to kiss Viktor, as fake as the kisses were, he wanted to take full advantage of all of the time that he’d had.

“That was perfect!” Celestino called out. “Great job, you two! We’re done for the day!’

Viktor pulled off of Yuuri, grinning brightly at him. Yuuri smiled back. “I’m glad that went so well! I doubt it would have been so good with anyone else,” he said, and Yuuri’s heart skipped for a moment. He smiled brightly at Viktor before his brain caught up with him. Viktor wasn’t saying Yuuri was a good kisser. Viktor wasn’t saying that he had enjoyed kissing Yuuri.

“You’re right,” he said, and laughed when he saw how brightly Viktor’s face lit up after he’d spoken. “You’re an amazing actor, and I push myself to be as good as you are. The scene is going to be amazing.” That was it. Viktor thought that it was a very professionally well done scene, and Yuuri agreed.

“Right.” And, no, Yuuri, Viktor’s smile did not drop a little bit, and he did not look the slightest bit upset with what Yuuri had said. Viktor viewed Yuuri as a professional coworker.

“I guess that’s all the scenes we have left together this season,” Yuuri said, starting to sit up. The last few shoots were Viktor and Yakov filming flashbacks of Dimitry under Kazimir’s control, so without Yuuri and Phichit. He had finished for the season.

“Thank you for such an amazing season!” Viktor exclaimed before jumping forward to wrap his arms around Yuuri. Yuuri made a shocked noise as Viktor fell on top of him, and he hugged him back out of instinct more than anything else.

Viktor was a touchy person. Viktor was a touchy person. This was completely normal. Absolutely. Viktor was super touchy. He was just hugging Yuuri because they’d wrapped their shoot. “I’m glad that I finally got to work with you. This show has been so amazing and I’m glad we get a season two,” Yuuri answered, his arms still around Viktor.

After a moment, Viktor seemed to realize what was happening and let go of Yuuri, smiling softly. “I’ll leave you to get cleaned up. I’ll text you so we can watch all the episodes together!” Viktor jumped up, waving to Yuuri and ducking off into makeup so he could get cleaned off.

Yuuri stood up slowly, walking off to get himself cleaned off, taking off the costume. He was so confused on what was going on. When he’d finally finished getting the blood scrubbed off of his face, he looked down at his phone, that had buzzed multiple times.

Viktor and Vik had _both_ tweeted.

He knew what Viktor’s would be, so he decided to look at that one first. He checked (and then double checked, and then triple checked) that he was logged onto his official Twitter, not needing to scroll far to see Viktor’s tweet show up. The selfie of the two of them had already gained thousands of likes, and Yuuri watched the number continue to increase as he read the caption that Viktor had chosen.

 **@v-nikiforov:** I just filmed my favorite scene so far of @HistorymakersTV with @y-katsuki. We’re so excited for everyone to see the finale!!! It’s going to blow you away ;)

 **@iwritebetterthanispeak:** WHAT IS HAPPENING WHY ARE THEY BOTH COVERED IN BLOOD I DON’T LIKE THIS BUT ALSO THEY’RE B  O T H COVERED IN BLOOD SO I DO LIKE THIS?

 **@twine-and-hope:** @katsukiforov @therealviknik any theories?? or fic ideas ahhhh ??? i’m so excited for the finale!!!

 **@miraculoushobi:** is no one going to talk about how Hot @v-nikiforov looks in this pic??? WOW the finale is going to KILL US

All of the responses were similar, and Yuuri liked the tweet, going through and liking a few of the fan responses as well, and he could see that Viktor had done the same with the way that fans were freaking out through the responses. He laughed softly to himself, closing out of Viktor’s tweet and switching the app onto katsukiforov’s twitter. There, the first tweet on his newsfeed was from Vik, and Yuuri bit his lip when he read what he’d written.

 **@therealviknik:** does anyone have advice on how to ask out a boy?

 **@soundless-fate** : ask him out to coffee!!! or dinner!! something cute and simple :) you’re so awesome, i’m sure no one would say no to you!!!

 **@isisnocturne1369:** you said you’ve asked him out before, right??? and he didn’t know? go Over The Top, vik. we know you can do it. get that boy a flashmob that ends in “date me”

 **@ladynikiforova:** why don’t you just ask @katsukiforov? ;)

 **@ladynikiforova:** (both how to ask him out AND that you want to go out with him)

Yuuri shouldn’t be jealous of someone that he didn’t know, but everyone giving Vik advice on how to ask out his not-boyfriend made Yuuri frown. He’d let this weird thing go on for too long, he had to do something about it.

He barely had time to read through a few responses to each of them before Vik was private messaging him on tumblr, too. Yuuri ignored the message for a few moments, because he was pretty sure what it was going to be about. He flipped through tumblr, reblogging a few posts and metas that had already sprung up about Viktor’s newest tweet, trying to look like he was idly browsing and hadn’t noticed Vik’s message yet.

After a few moments, he finally opened it to respond.

 **therealviknik:** did you see my tweet?

 **katsukiforov:** vik, are you asking ME out? :o

 **katsukiforov:** yeah, i saw your tweet. what’s up?

 **therealviknik:** i just can’t figure out how to ask him out. every time i try i think he thinks i’m asking something else and i don’t know what to do because he’s so gorgeous and i’ve spent so much time with him and i think i’m in love

 **therealviknik:** kat today at work he smiled at me and i almost shattered my phone

 **therealviknik:** it was the most beautiful smile i’d ever seen and it was so genuine and for a second i thought he understood what i meant

 **therealviknik:** but he doesn’t or we would be dating right now. we would have kissed

 **katsukiforov:** wow, vik, you’re really falling for him…

 **therealviknik** : i know (((( i just need to know if he’s interested in me

 **katsukiforov:** look i’m not the best at advice, clearly, since i have the same problem, but why don’t you just… ask him?

 **katsukiforov:** like really directly? like “hey ___ i really want to take you on a date” and then bring him to coffee or dinner or something?

 **katsukiforov:** when i was telling my sister a little about my problem that’s what she suggested

 **katsukiforov:** so i guess it’s worth a shot

 **katsukiforov:** i don’t know how someone wouldn’t want to date you

 **katsukiforov:** what’s the worst that can happen?

 **therealviknik:** thanks, kat  <3

 **therealviknik:** it seems dumb that i have to ask for you to tell me that the best way to ask him out is to ask him out

 **therealviknik;** but… i will ))) he watches hm with me, maybe when we watch the finale i’ll ask then…

Now Yuuri just had to decide what _he_ was going to do when it came time to watch the finale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my blog is [yoyoplisetsky](http://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/). i'll sometimes post sidestories for this fic over there, but i'll also post all kinds of other stuff if you want to check me out, haha.
> 
> all urls in this chapter come from [this post](https://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/post/161550677047/hey-im-working-on-the-next-chapter-of-my-im). thank you for letting me use your urls and pls feel free to like/reply to it if you want yours to potentially be featured <3 it makes this so much easier for me haha
> 
> as always, kudos/comments/bookmarks are so appreciated <3 thanks for your amazing support on this fic. i lovelovelove how much you love it and it makes it so much fun for me to write wondering how y'all will react to stuff so just <333 thank you


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vik realizes that the finale is much further away than he anticipated.
> 
> Viktor crashes Yuuri's apartment before movie night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the chapters just keep getting longer, y'all.
> 
> things go Down. please scream. i want to scream. i've been screaming.
> 
> (there's an art link in the end notes for a Scene please give it love whne you get there)

**therealviknik:** kat. i made a mistake.

 **therealviknik:** katttttttttt are you awake?

 **therealviknik:** you’re probably not awake it’s four am

 **therealviknik:** i made a mistake

 **therealviknik:** a Very Serious Mistake

 **therealviknik:** do you know how long it is until the finale airs?

 **therealviknik:** just because we filmed it doesn’t mean it’s airing any time soon

 **therealviknik:** *they whoops i’m tired i’m not in history makers

 **therealviknik:** i can’t stop thinking about it

 **therealviknik:** message me back when you wake up

 **therealviknik:** sleep well!!!

Yuuri groggily stared at his phone, laughing when he saw how many messages he had from Vik. It had been a week since they filmed the finale, but he understood Vik’s feelings. Viktor posting that picture had gotten everyone excited for the finale, but it didn’t actually air for a few weeks, still. His advice for Vik to wait to the finale to ask out his crush was probably terrible advice, because he still had a while longer to wait.

 **katsukiforov:** i’m awake now, ty, i slept well

 **katsukiforov:** why were you awake so late, vik?

 **therealviknik:** writing!!!

 **therealviknik:** i’m working on a new fic it’s going to be good!!!

 **katsukiforov:** as for your boy crisis, why can’t you just ask him out sooner?

 **therealviknik:** what if he says no

 **katsukiforov:** he’d say no whether you waited to the finale or not then, wouldn’t he?

 **therealviknik:** that’s true…

 **therealviknik:** but i don’t have a plan if i ask him out now! i should wait until the finale.

 **katsukiforov:** what’s your plan for the finale?

 **therealviknik:** i’ll invite him over to my apartment to watch it, so i don’t accidentally not make it clear that it’s a date. he’s good friends with a couple people we usually watch with but i want to make sure it’s just me and him. so i’ll invite just him over, and we’ll watch together

 **therealviknik:** and then i’ll ask him at the end, probably? there’s bound to be a plot twist or something we’ll want to talk about

 **therealviknik:** so after it happens, i’ll ask him out!

The _plot twist_ at the end of the episode was the kiss, but Vik didn’t know that. It probably made it an even better time to ask his date out – as a ship became canon. Yuuri laughed softly, leaning back into his bed.

 **katsukiforov:** seems like a good idea.

 **katsukiforov:** but if you really can’t wait, you could always…. ask him out now

 **therealviknik:** noooo i’ll be fine it’s not that much longer

 **therealviknik:** gtg, kat!! i’m getting lunch with some people

 **therealviknik:** i’ll message you if i change my mind

 **katsukiforov:** so you just wanted me to commiserate with you waiting?

 **therealviknik:** )))) thank you, kat!!

 **therealviknik:** but what if i can’t wait

 **katsukiforov:** vik oh my god

 **katsukiforov:** just ask him, vik

 **katsukiforov:** the worst thing that happens is he says no a little earlier than you were expecting

 **katsukiforov:** better, and more likely, you have a boyfriend a few weeks earlier

 **therealviknik:** ahhhhhhh i’ll think about it. thank you, kat!!!! <3

 **katsukiforov:** no problem. good luck, vik <3

Yuuri shook his head, setting down his phone and walking out to the kitchen to make himself some lunch. He didn’t have any plans until that night, when Yuuko and Phichitwere coming over for a movie night. He should probably start packing for his trip to Hasetsu, but he still had a few weeks before he left, so it was not really worth his time to start to do that yet.

He sat down on his couch, flipping on his TV and pulling a blanket over his lap, flipping through Instagram on his phone. Viktor had posted a selfie with Chris, out to lunch together. Yuuri liked it and kept scrolling, though there wasn’t really much to see on his Instagram. He pulled up his katsukiforov tumblr page, scrolling through his dash and reblogging a few Dimoru fanarts that had been drawn from the last episode.

People seemed pretty excited for what they thought was going to happen in the finale, and Yuuri was avoiding his inbox while he waited. He knew that people were waiting for show meta, but he was terrified of accidentally giving spoilers if he answered of them now, knowing exactly what was going to happen.

After a while of scrolling through social media, he set his phone to the side and flipped through the TV channels until he found one playing reruns of some show he was somewhat interested in and had seen before. He just needed a day to relax. They were going to have to start ramping up promotion for the last episode soon, and then he was sure they were going to have to hit up cons and keep promoting for season two once he got back from Hasetsu. One day of relaxing and watching terrible old TV shows half-asleep was what he needed.

 He started to doze off on the couch watching it. Since they were just having a movie night, he had no real reason to change out of his pajamas, because he was sure that Phichit was going to end up wearing pajamas over. He should probably comb out his hair before they came, because he had no doubt a selfie was going to end up online from this, but he had plenty of time. They weren’t due over for a few hours.

Yuuri fell asleep a few episodes into the show, but woke up to a knocking at his door. He glanced at the clock in confusion, blinking his eyes a couple of times. Had he slept for that long? No way had he slept for that long. His clock confirmed that it was not dinner time yet, and he stared at the door in confusion for a few more moments. He had a few hours until his friends were supposed to come over, there was no way that any of them had gotten there _that_ early. Maybe Phichit or Yuuko had nothing better to do and decided he was probably doing the same thing in their apartment as they would be in Yuuri’s? It wouldn’t be the first time.

His phone was lighting up with notifications, but he could check those after he’d let whoever in. Yuuri stood up from the couch, dropping the blanket and walking barefoot to the door. He rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes as he opened it, only to stand there with a completely dry mouth when he saw who was standing on the other side.

“Yuuri.” Viktor stood in his doorway, his hair wet and dangling limply in front of his eye, probably just out of a shower. He was wearing tightly fitting jeans and a purple button-up shirt, and Yuuri had to fight to remember how to speak. Just waking up and being faced with Viktor looking like _that_ did wonders to Yuuri’s vocal abilities. Viktor looked around nervously, rubbing his hand against the back of his neck, like he regretted being there.

Yuuri could only stare. He had been expecting Phichit, or Yuuko. And yet here was a flustered looking Viktor, who seemed nervous for whatever it was that was going to happen. Yuuri raised his eyebrows. “Viktor? Do you need something?”

“I probably should have just texted this, but you weren’t picking up, and I’ve already waited too long, and this was the only time I could think of that someone wouldn’t interrupt me asking,” Viktor mumbled, covering his face with his hands, pulling them down after a moment to fix Yuuri with a bright (but… nervous? Why would Viktor be nervous?) smile. “I was wondering… Do you want to go on a date?”

Yuuri stood frozen in the doorway of his apartment. He was wearing sweatpants he was pretty sure he’d worn yesterday, a soft blue sweatshirt with a poodle pattern covering it, and he was _barefoot_ , hair tangled from just sleeping on the couch. And _this_ was what he was looked like when _Viktor Nikiforov_ asked him out. He had to be wrong, right? He was imagining things. He was hearing things. His fantasies were out of control, this couldn’t be true. Maybe this was a dream. Was he still asleep on the couch?

“A… date?” he stammered, unable to meet Viktor’s eyes, afraid of seeing the rejection, the laughter from obviously hearing him wrong.

“A date,” Viktor _confirmed_ , and Yuuri finally looked up, meeting Viktor’s eyes. Viktor was still smiling, and Yuuri’s eyes widened, his mouth falling open a little. “If you’d like to. I’d like to take you to dinner. On a date. This weekend, maybe?”

“You want to date me.” This wasn’t one of Vik’s fanfictions. This was Viktor, in the flesh, asking him out on a date. Yuuri swallowed all of his nerves (or, well, as many as he _could_ swallow, but he was being asked out by _Viktor Nikiforov_ , he was allowed to be nervous). “Yes,” he whispered.

Viktor’s face lit up and he wrapped his arms around Yuuri, laughing brightly. Yuuri couldn’t think to do anything other than wrap his arms back around Viktor, still shocked. Viktor really wanted to go out with him, he wanted to date _YuurI._ This wasn’t a dream, a fanfiction, none of those things. This was really Viktor, in his arms, asking to go out with him. Yuuri grinned, feeling like an idiot while he buried his face into Viktor’s shoulder. “Thank you! I was thinking – we could take Makkachin on a walk Saturday, maybe? A new restaurant opened up a few weeks ago, I haven’t gotten to try it yet. I can call and get us a private reservation, so no one will see us.”

“That sounds perfect,” Yuuri said, finally pulling away, his cheeks bright red as he stared up at Viktor. He saw the same blush reflected on Viktor’s face and couldn’t help from a giddy laugh, covering his mouth after he had.

“I’m so glad you want this,” Viktor said softer, brushing his hand against Yuuri’s cheek, and Yuuri looked up at him, not even sure how he could hold eye contact at this point. He was practically vibrating in excitement. He had to tell Phichit, Mari, Yuuko, _Vik_. He had to tell everyone he knew that he was getting his date.

“Viktor, I’ve wanted this from the second we met,” Yuuri blurted out, groaning after he had, covering his face. “I just mean – “

“Really?” Viktor started laughing, and Yuuri started to sink into the ground until he continued, “Was I being too vague, then? Yuuri, I’ve been trying to hint at wanting to date you for _ages_. I was starting to think you just weren’t interested in me.”

Everything the fans had been reading into. It hadn’t been overeager fans wanting their OTP to be true – Viktor had been planting those hints in all of his tweets, all of his posts to Instagram. Every time he’d stood too close or said something flirty or hesitated a second too long while filming – he had _actually_ been trying to show his interest in Yuuri. Oh, _god_ , that… The _tweet_ , about Viktor getting a new dog, it wasn’t a new dog! He was talking about Yuuri. _All of it_ , everything he and Vik had been screaming about for _weeks_ , it was all _real._

Yuuri wrapped his arms around Viktor with another laugh, shaking his head. “I didn’t even realize, Viktor, I’m sorry! I had no idea you were talking about me, I thought I was being too hopeful.” That was one way to say ‘I’ve been talking on fan forums about how in love I was with you but never thought it would be true’, at least. The way that was least likely to make Viktor regret asking him out.

“Then I’m glad I decided to finally be more direct, then,” Viktor said, looking at Yuuri like he was holding the world’s greatest treasure. This was all too much. Yuuri’s cheeks turned redder the longer Viktor looked at him, and he looked to the ground.

“I have plans with Phichit and Yuuko for dinner,” Yuuri blurted, not because he wanted Viktor to leave, but because he knew that his friend would be over at any time. “You can join us if you want to?”

He didn’t know why he was offering. He was going to be nervous the entire time, because Viktor had just asked to _date_ Yuuri. No amount of reading fanfiction and fan theories had prepared him for the _real thing_ coming to his door and asking him out. Phichit and Yuuko coming over would be a blessing, because he could immediately gush to them and he knew that they’d have some kind of advice. Maybe he should call Mari over, too. His sister would at least want to know that he was _dating_ Viktor, right?

His head was swimming when Viktor answered, “I wish! I had plans to go out with Georgi and Yuri, though. Which is why I should have texted to ask you out, it would have made more sense, since I can’t even stay for long.”

“That’s fine!” Yuuri answered, shaking his head. “Have fun with them! I’ll see you Saturday?”

“I can’t wait!” Viktor exclaimed, wrapping Yuuri in one last hug before waving goodbye, walking away. Yuuri stayed frozen there for a moment longer before he closed the door, sinking to the ground behind it with a giddy squeal, covering his hands. Viktor had just asked him out.

He just _really got a date_ with Viktor Nikiforov.

He grabbed his phone, looking at the notifications that he had missed. He stared when he realized it was almost all texts from Viktor.

 **from viktor:** hey, yuuri! can i call you?

 **from viktor:** i have something i need to talk to you about and i really don’t want to wait any longer

 **from viktor:** you’re at your apartment, right? is it okay for me to come over?

 **from viktor:** ahh i want to ask you something but you’re not picking up!!!

 **from viktor:** i’m going to come over, please text me back if you’re not home.

 **from viktor:** i’m walking upstairs now.

He’d also missed three calls from Viktor, and Yuuri laughed softly, staring at the text messages. Viktor had wanted to ask him on a date so badly that he’d texted and called that many times. Yuuri regretted not seeing them, as this was not exactly what he had wanted to wear when Viktor asked him out.

It was _fine_ , though, because Viktor hadn’t even seemed to care, despite being dressed his best to go to dinner with Yuri and Georgi later. Yuuri sat on the floor, pulling up his fan twitter and immediately sending out a new tweet, still practically shaking with excitement,

 **@katsukiforov:** Sometimes the Best Things happen. Guess who has a date!!! A REAL date.

 **@cricketcat9:** congrats katsuki!!!! is it with the not-date boy??

 **@caritatem-aeternam:**!!!! tell us all of the details i need to know everything katsuki i’m so excited for you

 **@therealviknik:** @katsukiforov i need to message you about so many things after dinner.

 **@katsukiforov:** @therealviknik <3 i can’t wait to talk!

 **@postingpebbles:** so ten bucks says viknik asked katsuki out

 **@katsukiforov:** @postingpebbles i don’t think so, i don’t think it’s possible my date is vik at all. it would be Amazing if he was, but… seems unlikely.

He put down his phone when someone knocked on his door and sighed, looking down at himself. Viktor’s plans had interrupted his plans to wear _anything_ else, and that had to be Phichit. He probably saw his katsukiforov tweet… Yep. Yuuri looked down and saw the new like on his tweet, setting his phone to the side and opening the door.

“Viktor asked you out!” Phichit exclaimed, walking into the room with a wide grin. “I can’t believe it, oh my god, Yuuri! When did he ask you out, how, what are you going to do?” Phichit asked, and Yuuri laughed.

“He came to my apartment and asked me to the park and dinner on Saturday,” he answered. “Look what I was wearing, Phichit. I look like I haven’t gotten out of bed in a week, and Viktor asked just asked me out.”

“You don’t look _that bad_.” Phichit rolled his eyes, grinning at Yuuri still. “I can’t believe he asked you out! I knew that he wanted to date you, but he _did it_ , you’re dating Viktor Nikiforov!”

“I can’t believe it either,” Yuuri said, the smile on his face feeling permanent. “Viktor wants to date me.” He stood up. “I’m gonna go change shirts and comb my hair – can I call Mari and invite her over?”

“It’s your apartment, why would I stop you from inviting your sister? I’m surprised you don’t want to invite your _boyfriend_ ,” Phichit teased and Yuuri ducked his head down.

“I did invite him, he already had plans!” He walked back to his room, texting his sister.

 **to mari:** Me and Phichit and Yuuko are having a pizza/movie night if you want to come over

 **to mari:** Please come over I want to tell you something…

 **from mari:** You want to tell me something?

 **to mari:** It’s good, i swear!! Please?

 **from mari:** Give me an hour, I’ll be over. I can’t stay for long.

 **to mari:** That’s fine!!

 **from mari:** Order some veggie pizza and tell Phichit I refuse to watch KATS.

 **to mari:** Okay, see you then!!

Yuuri set his phone down, pulling out a t-shirt from a movie that Viktor had been in years ago, tugging it over his head before he even thought. Was it weird to wear the t-shirt if his (holy shit, Viktor was his _boyfriend_ ) boyfriend’s face was plastered across it? But no one _knew_ he was dating Viktor, and it was one of his most comfortable shirts. It was bound to start speculation online, and his friends were going to tease him, but he didn’t care.

“Mari is coming over,” he called as he walked out of his room, sitting down onto the couch and grabbing his phone. “She said you’re not allowed to watch _The King and the Skater_ , so you better make other plans.”

“I guess we’re watching one of Viktor’s movies, then,” Phichit responded, and Yuuri raised his eyebrows. “Have you seen your movie collection, Yuuri? It’s _The King and the Skater_ , stuff you’ve been in and definitely wouldn’t let us watch right now, and stuff Viktor’s in. Obviously, this means we’re watching one of Viktor’s.”

“Can we at least watch _Kingdom Come_? Mari likes the co-star in that movie who looks like an older Yuri,” Yuuri requested, and Phichit started to laugh.

“You know who Takao is, Yuuri. But, yeah, we’ll watch that, and I’ll pretend like it’s for Takao for Mari’s sake, not because of the scene where Viktor can’t control his magic and he has to – “ Yuuri threw his hands over Phichit’s mouth, his cheeks flaming.

“We’ll watch _The King and the Skater_ after it! Mari said she could only stay for a little while, so she’ll probably have to leave before that anyway,” Yuuri offered, and Phichit gave in.

Yuuri smiled, grabbing his phone to order their pizza. While he was ordering, Yuuko showed up. Phichit let her in, immediately laughing about something and Yuuri was _sure_ it had to do with the movie he’d chosen, but he couldn’t bring himself to care at the moment. So, fine, okay, he’d chosen the movie partially because Viktor took his shirt off a few times and had worked out _a lot_ before it began. But Viktor also _always_ looked good, so that really wasn’t any way to judge one of his movies.

“Hey, Yuuko!” Yuuri walked over to the door once the pizza was ordered, grinning at his friend. “Phichit and I were talking about watching _Kingdom Come,_ then _The King and the Skater_ , if that’s okay with you?”

“How did I know we’d end up watching _The King and the Skater_?” she laughed, but nodded her head. “He said Mari was coming over?”

“Yeah, I invited her, since we probably won’t be able to hang out much more between we leave for Hasetsu, and we’ll be gone for a few weeks when we leave.” Yuuri sat down, patting the couch for Yuuko to sit next to him. She walked over, sitting down beside him and taking the offered drink.

“And…” Phichit squeezed onto the couch next to Yuuko, and Yuuri ducked his head down, nodding his head.

“And I have something to tell you and Mari that Phichit already knows,” he added, looking up at her, a grin falling over his face. “Something good, I promise!”

“Something good you have to tell us?” Yuuko grinned, and Yuuri felt like burying himself in the couch. Why were all of his friends like this? Each and every one of them seemed capable of embarrassing him to no end, and not even entirely on purpose. “Sounds fun! You watching anything after _The King and the Skater?_ ”

“If we have time! You can pick, though we’ll probably have to try Netflix because Yuuri has a _disgustingly_ limited DVD collection,” Phichit said, and the two launched into a discussion about certain movies that everyone _needed_ to own a copy of.

Yuuri rolled his eyes, letting them discuss as he pulled his phone onto his lap, flipping through Twitter and liking a few of the things that fellow actors had tweeted out. Viktor had tweeted a few pictures of Makkachin that day that Yuuri saved to his phone, tucking them into a folder already full of pictures of Makkachin. He had the habit before he knew Viktor, but now he couldn’t help it, even though he hung out with Makkachin almost every day.

“Pizza’s here!” Phichit shouted at the knock on the door, shooting off of the couch to go get it. He opened the door, and Mari walked in, laughing at his excitement.

“Hate to burst your bubble, but not pizza. You guys pick a movie?” She walked over to sit next to Yuuri, kicking her feet up onto his coffee table.

“ _Kingdom Come_. Yuuri says it’s because you like Takao but we _all_ know why we’re watching it,” Yuuko teased.

“Well, I like even the fake consideration of what I like.” Mari smirked at Yuuri. “And I guess all of us can admire Viktor with his shirt off. Not my type, but I can’t deny you’ve got good taste, Yuuri.”

“ _Mari_ ,” he sighed, because of course his sister was more than happy to side with his friends. She didn’t have time to pick up an argument before the pizza _actually_ arrived, and Phichit distributed plates, effectively ending the conversations.

“So, Yuuri,” Mari said as they were starting to wind down the pizza, the box almost empty and Yuuri leaning against the side of the couch, having eaten far more pizza than he should have. “You said you had something to tell us?”

“Oh yeah! He said that Phichit already knew, but they claimed it was good,” Yuuko chimed in, and Yuuri opened his eyes, cheeks flushing red as he played with the edge of his shirt.

“Um… Viktor asked me out,” he mumbled. He couldn’t get his voice to raise above a whisper, but even just the words brought a smile back to his face. He ducked his head down, pressing his face against his knees. “He asked me to dinner on Saturday. On a date. He said that, specifically. He asked me on a date.”

“Oh my god!” Yuuko squealed, grabbing onto Yuuri’s hands. “Did he ask you today? Are you excited? Yuuri, you’ve been _dying_ for this for so long!”

“Um, yeah, he surprised me and came over right before you did. He texted first, but I wasn’t checking my phone, because I was half asleep,” Yuuri explained, looking up to see the beaming faces of his friends and sister.

“Told you he wanted to date you,” Mari said in that way that only a know-it-all sister could say, and Yuuri huffed out his breath, shrugging his shoulders.

“How was I supposed to know?” he asked, and Mari broke into loud laughter.

“How were you supposed to know? Yuuri, I know you get notifications for that man’s Twitter, have you _seen_ it? He’s constantly flirting with you, and he was staring at you the whole time you two were filming your kiss. There was a reason it was so perfect,” Mari said, swatting her hand against the back of his head.

“I… thought it was because he was a good actor?” Yuuri groaned, covering his face with his hands.

“It was because he _wanted to kiss you_ ,” Yuuko exclaimed, laughing with Mari. “Yuuri! You really didn’t see it at all?”

“No, I _saw_ it, I just… thought I was reading too much into it. I thought I’d have to ask him, and he’d reject me.” Yuuri ran a hand through his hair, shrugging. “It doesn’t seem real that someone like Viktor would want someone like _me_.”

“Of course he does,” Yuuko said, setting her hand against Yuuri’s knee. “You’re handsome, and talented. Anyone would want you, Yuuri. I’m glad Viktor finally asked.”

“Thank you,” Yuuri murmured, pressing his face into his knees again, his face blazing.

“So you want to watch _Kingdom Come_ to admire your boyfriend with his shirt off, then?” Mari taunted, and Yuuri tried to stutter out an answer before throwing his hands up.

“At least now I have an excuse!” he gave in, shaking his head at her, a smile tugging at his lips.

“Let’s turn on the movie!” Phichit exclaimed, grabbing the DVD from Yuuri’s cabinet and putting it in, pressing play as the four of them settled into the couch.

 **@phichit+chu:** Movie night with @y-katsuki @yuukonishigori and @m-katsuki! Yuuri suggested the movie ;) [img attached: Yuuri, Yuuko, Mari, and Phichit all in a selfie with a movie playing behind them. The scene on the TV _very clearly_ showed a shot of Viktor with his shirt off.]

 **@unerasablemilkyway:** omg is yuuri wearing a shirt from never leave me??? that’s so great!!!

 **@uniqueobjectwhispers:** where are viktor and yuri? :( it’s like a cast party but you left them out…

 **@kaakkimursu:** awesome picture!!! what are you guys watching???

 **@phichit+chu:** @kaakkimursu We’re watching kingdom come!! @m-katsuki said we couldn’t watch KATS :’(

 **@m-katsuki:** @phichit+chu @kaakkimursu Trust me, you wouldn’t want to watch KATS if you were us.

 **@v-nikiforov:** Sad I couldn’t make it! @y-katsuki, love the shirt ;) and the movie choice ;)

 **@syren:** that’s so cute????

 **@stammiviktor:** day 243: i still wish viktuuri was canon…

 **@linneakou:** MOOD WHAT A COMPLETE MOOD

Yuuri closed out of twitter, leaning into his sister’s side as the movie played on. As it was about to end, his phone buzzed and he looked down to see a new text from Viktor.

 **from viktor:** i can’t wait for saturday!!! <3 <3

 **to viktor:** me neither :)

He smiled, pressing his phone against his chest. Mari laughed, ruffling his hair. “I told you it would work out, Yuuri.” She’d obviously been looking over his shoulder, but he found that he barely cared.

“I know.” Yuuri leaned against his sister’s side, watching for more notifications from Viktor, even though he knew that he was busy. He was _giddy_ with the idea that Viktor wanted to text him and wanted to date him, he couldn’t help it. “I’m excited.”

“You’ve only been dreaming about this since you were, what, twelve?” Mari taunted. Yuuri groaned, smacking his sister’s arms as his cheeks turned red again.

“Shut up,” he muttered, but smiled anyway. “Can you come over before we go out on Saturday?”

“Because you’re going to be having a major freak out and tearing all of your clothes out of your drawers trying to figure out how to impress your new boyfriend even though you impress him in clothes you’ve worn for three days?”

“It’s only been a day, Mari, shut up,” Yuuri whined, but nodded his head anyway. “Please?”

“Yes, I’ll come over on Saturday to help you get ready for your date with the love of your life to make sure you don’t accidentally wear any of his merchandise to it. Now pay attention to the movie.” She shoved him, and he shoved her back, settling back into her shoulder, watching the screen as Viktor’s character performed some intricate magic trick, lifting a fallen building from the ground.

He had a _date_ with that guy.

_Wow._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE (ART LINK)  
> i won este's art giveaway and for my prize i requested she draw viktor coming to ask yuuri out - and it's so cute, [here's the link](http://estellie.tumblr.com/post/177279827051/the-giveaway-doodle-for-yoyoplisetsky-a-scene). please go give her love, i'm crying, her art is beautiful.
> 
> I PROMISE I'LL ADD THE NEXT CHAPTER SOONER THINGS ARE HAPPENING
> 
> my blog is [yoyoplisetsky](http://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/). if you want to check me out, or talk to me, or scream headcanons, i'd love it!!
> 
> all urls in this chapter come from [this post](https://yoyoplisetsky.tumblr.com/post/161550677047/hey-im-working-on-the-next-chapter-of-my-im). thank you for letting me use your urls and pls feel free to like/reply to it if you want yours to potentially be featured <3 it makes this so much easier for me haha this post will always be the one i use :)
> 
> as always, kudos/comments/bookmarks are so appreciated <3 your support on this fic blows me away so much ??? i did not expect so many people to love it and more and more just keep coming on board sajdlfksa;;

**Author's Note:**

> hi so this is exciting but um here's links of things inspired by this fic???! i'm so excited  
> [este did amazing art from chapter six as a prize for her art giveaway](http://estellie.tumblr.com/post/177279827051/the-giveaway-doodle-for-yoyoplisetsky-a-scene)  
> [twineandhope is doing a super awesome podfic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15676737/chapters/36420810)  
> please give them love!
> 
> i always appreciate kudos/comments/bookmarks <3

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] i will go down with this ship! by thishasbeencary](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15676737) by [twineandhope](https://archiveofourown.org/users/twineandhope/pseuds/twineandhope)




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